We were able to organise a relatively early breakfast and then we were off with packed lunch and plenty of iced tea in out water bottles. Really it’s not much more than sugary cordial but we have found it makes a nice change from just water. Here you can get a range of flavours including watermelon and pineapple which are both nice.
Walking out of town and we had a long stretch on paved roads which are pretty common around the various villages. I keep imagining men on hands and knees laying the pavers. The views were spectacular looking back to our village and further down the coast. The water is either a bright blue or a clear green. It is so crystal clear. There were several hills either on the mainland or the islands with castle ruins on top and/or several tombs. One thing we did notice is that even though the water is so clear lots of the shoreline is littered with rubbish. Plastic drinking bottles are the major culprit but also all sorts of refuge from the hundreds of boats. You see good waste as well as clothing, broken bottles cardboard etc. there are hundreds of boats most taking day trippers but many taking 3-10 day trips and then all the privately owned cruising up and down the coast.
The path today was the best to date. The paved road gave way to a dirt one, then to a gravel one and then to a fairly wide, flat dirt track with not so many rocks. I commented to Danny that it was the first time I was actually thinking of other things rather than wondering where to place the next step- over a rock, around a rock, on a rock and if on a rock will it hold or will it be wobbly or slide down hill. When you mind is not on the next step, it’s looking for a marker and wondering how many metres ago you saw the last marker. It certainly was more restful walking for about 3-4 kms and then we got closer to the sea and were back onto picking our way through the rocks and bushes, but at least it was relatively flat with few steep inclines or declines.
Once again there were quite a few ruins. It’s now not uncommon to come across old settlements, tombs, forts and especially water sources such as wells, cisterns and storage tanks.
By lunch time we came across a pebbly beach, and had caught up with a few people we had seen over the last few days. One a single man who lives in Turkey but spent many years in NZ and is American. The other couple not so friendly and possibly Dutch. We all gathered in the one small patch of shade, took it in turn to turn our backs on each other to change into our bathers and laid out our sodden sweaty clothes on the pebbles while we had a swim. We were lucky that we had packed our reef shoes as walking on the pebbles and getting out of the water is agony without them. We munched on our packed lunch, took turns again in the back turning dressing room and trekked on, through more meandering coastal rocky trails.
About a km from our finish point we came across a fresh water stream and had to cross a very makeshift wobble bridge. The stream entered into the ocean and about 1 km further there was another stream. Between the two streams was a sandy beach – our first to date. At last some our sand walking practice was about to pay off. Danny took his boots off and walked in the water, I took the shore, but it was pretty hard brown sand and just like walking on a dirt road. We arrived at our meeting place (a bar in a car park) with about 45 mins to spare and the owner of the bar served us our beer once he had finished his game of backgammon. Selma arrived to pick us up and we had another couple of firsts. 1 she wore a seatbelt and also had working ones in the passenger seat 2. She didn’t talk on the mobile phone while driving and 3. She wasn’t a frustrated rally car driver and took the windy mountain roads are hairpin bends at a reasonable speed.
Once again internet too poor to load photos.
Jane treks Lycian Way 2022 