Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is the strangest country on the route, and that is a considered assessment after five weeks in Central Asia. It is one of the most closed states in the world, as hard for Central Asians to enter as for anyone else, governed by a president who received 97.67% of the vote on a 97.2% turnout, holds the title Protector and Pillar of the Nation, controls around 80% of the country's oil and gas income, and has authored more than 63 books. His previous occupation was dentist to the first president, which is a career trajectory that repays reflection.

The internet is heavily restricted. WhatsApp doesn't work. E-sims and roaming are unavailable. You are, for the duration, genuinely off the grid.

The border crossing involves a no-man's land wait, a long wait at Turkmen border control while the guide sorts paperwork, a mandatory Covid test at $42 per person regardless of when you're reading this, and, on this visit, two power cuts. Once through, the hotel is beautiful and the infrastructure unexpectedly impressive. Petrol is effectively free. Camels appear at the roadside without warning or explanation and then continue to appear just after that, in larger numbers.

The jashmax, a veil worn by some Turkmen women, is visible throughout, a reminder that this is a country with its own distinct cultural traditions that exist entirely independently of outside observation.

Twenty-six days of travel across four countries has been, at various points, complicated, frustrating, revelatory, and occasionally a disaster in the bathroom department. Turkmenistan is the final act, and it saves some of its best material for last.