Journey to Hell

(this should have been posted awhile ago but lack of internet access prevented this)

May 31, 2009

This weekend we took an unforgettable excursion into the heart of the Kara Kum desert to Darvaza, home to a large, fiery gaseous crater otherwise known as “The Pit of Hell”. Years ago when people were drilling for oil it was accidentally lit on fire and remains this way today.


The eight of us piled into two SUVs and headed out into the desert in the scorching heat.


“Can we PLEASE stop at the next shop we see for water?” I asked our driver.


“Sure, no problem!” he said with a smile.


After about 150 kilometers we turned on a small, dirt path.


“Oooooh I hope they have ice cream!” I said. “I really, really want ice cream.”


“I hope they have some cold, bubbly water,” my friend Halley said. “That would be so good right now.”


We stopped in front of a small brown building about the size of a motor home. Two boys that looked about 12 years old sat outside at a small table cluttered with beers and sodas baking in the heat.


“Supermarket!” our driver said, laughing.


“Awwwwwww, man,” we moaned.


We continued on our way through the middle of nowhere, sweating out every drop of water we drank. Our driver turned off at one point to go off the road through the sand in the desert. How he knew this was the turn off point for the Pit of Hell is beyond me. We tumbled through the sand until we stopped at a small hill.


“Wooooooow,” we all said in unison when we saw the crater. The waves of heat came blasting every now again causing us to scream and run away. But overall it was pretty cool.


We set up tents, cooked some food and camped out under the stars by the giant flaming crater. Once night hit, the red glow from the crater was absolutely spectacular.


“Angela, tell everyone to stay at least ten meters back,” our driver told me.


“Sure, no problem!” I said as I ran down to hang out by the flames.


We took turns theorizing what we would do if one of us fell into the pit, compared it to the ending of Lord of the Rings and took a million photos at the crater’s edge by the glow until our driver came running out, yelling at us.


“Angela, I told you to tell them to stay ten meters back!” he yelled.


“Oooooo sorry,” I smiled. It was just too cool.


Later we put on some music, kicked off our shoes and went dancing in the sand. The desert windstorms were overwhelming and insane and the sand was just everywhere. In our food, in our ears, in our water, in our tents…everywhere. Halley and I crashed inside a tent that was almost completely blown over by the wind and woke up completely covered in sand.


Getting back through the sand dunes was harder than getting there, and we found ourselves stuck in the sand. The only way to successfully get through was to back up and go full-speed ahead. We flew through the air and bounded through the sand…it was sort of like that Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Our car made it through with minor neck injuries and bruises, but the other car didn’t. When they pulled up we saw that they had crashed pretty hard- the entire front end of the car was bent in and everyone inside was pretty shaken up.


The irony was that they had seatbelts and we didn’t.


Overall everyone was alright and that’s what matters. Minus the accident, the trip was my favorite excursion so far.


How many people can say they’ve been to hell and back, eh?