Selma, the lady of the house and the best driver in Turkey dropped us off half way to Myra. At first there was a misunderstanding and she nearly dropped us of at the base of a mountain with a very steep zigzag up but then took us to a road crossing offering us a flat downward road into town. I think Selma actually understood more English than we were expecting and maybe even was having a joke with us. She actually dropped us right next to a tomb advertising the local stone masons. It was about an hours walk to the Myra ruins through a lot of new developments. Mainly apartment blocks being built on hillsides and then any flat land below was just jammed packed with hot houses. A lot that we could see into were planting tomatoes. This being the end of summer it seems possible that they now grow the tomatoes all year round, and that’s probably the reason why the tomatoes are about as flavourless as those we by in Australian supermarkets.
The Myra ruins were quite amazing and are actually a detour from the main trail so we could have easily missed them. It’s a series of tombs built into the side of a hill. We tried to work out if the higher you went up the more important you were or if it was simply to do with the amount of carving on the front. Most of the carving had fallen off, but some were just laying in blocks on the ground. Of course all the tombs had been raided at some stage. The amphitheater was also good and was more intact than most.
After a glass of pomegranate juice we walked the couple of kms into town mainly through wall to wall hothouses. Some were glass but most plastic and once again as soon as they need to replace plastic, poly pipes or string it’s just dumped on the side of the road. Rubbish is a real problem
We tried a couple of ATMs but our card wouldn’t work or the machines were out of money and then had lunch in a restaurant mostly full of workers and labourers. Then it was around the corner to a very elaborate but empty square. Most of the shops down both sides were closed. At the head of the square was St Nicholas’ church. Tsar Nicholas 1 of Russia put in a lot of money to restore the church and it’s now currently trying to restore it again some 150 years later. There were quite a lot of Russian tourist visiting the church.
It seems the Turkish are a bit confused over St Nicholas. They believe he was the first Father Christmas, and there are lots of Father Christmas statues and signs around, either in English or saying Noel Baba. I thought the trinkets shop opposite the church would be a shoe in for a Christmas Tree ornament especially as there was a big Father Christmas out front but inquiries inside came up blank. They only sold Muslim paraphernalia or religious icons of St Nicholas..
We walked through the rest of town, found an ATM that worked and found the bakery where our luggage had been delivered, then after a bit of confusion managed to contact Ramazan who was to pick us up.
Ramazan understood that we had changed our walking program, but he wanted to show us where we should have walked tomorrow. He found the drop off point and then we looked up at a very steep zigzagging path along a cliff face. Nah, not doing it. A day in Finike along a flat beach and maybe the local ruins 5-6 kms out of town will do us.
There were a few other guests at the guesthouse with us tonight and one has walked the Lycian Way at least twice. He gave us a few pointers for the days ahead. Dinner tonight was rice and chicken soup, okra and beans, salad and rice, and lots of bread. We were grateful we had a chocolate bar in our packs.
Jane treks Lycian Way 2022 