The walk out of Adrasan was a double back on the way we had entered the town, along the long beach and passed the river restaurants. We noticed that the tourist boats that had anchored along the shore had gone except for one which was trying to load a few guests in very windy conditions. All the other boats seemed to have been tucked away in the little coves at either end of the beach.
We decided to walk the roads again. It would mean we would somewhat lose the pretty coastline but would give us another day on flatter surfaces and avoid the scrambling up and down steep and rocky terrain. We were both so surprised at how far the town of Adrasan spread with a couple of kilometres of bungalow hotels camping grounds and farms with roadside stalls mainly selling pomegranates, pomegranate juice, lemons, jars of olives and occasionally walnuts, olive oil and lemon juice. There was hardly a home without some enterprise going on and I can only assume there are not any laws or regulations about turning a spare patch of land into a camping ground or bungalow rental. It would be really interesting to see this place in the height off the summer season.
We walked on having one rest stop at. A bus shelter as taking the road means there are fewer opportunities to find a shady rock to sit on. We had another rest stop on a pile of dirt only to find a pretty park about 200mts further along. The park was a memorial to a great bushfire in 2016 which seemed to have burnt out the town of Olympus and a lot of the land around. We noticed as we walked into the town that many of the buildings were relatively new. We have noticed thee Turkish love building a wall. They put great energy and expense into building walls and fences around large plots of land often with elaborate electronic gates and then build really small houses with very small rooms. We noticed a new building works going on in town with once again great energy going into building terraced walls
The township of Olympus had virtually closed up for the season. We tried to buy an ice cream from a vendor but when he took the lids off the containers even he said they were no good to sell. I guess he was just going to keep on using up electricity to thaw and refreeze the ice cream through to next season.
It was another 3 or so kilometres to the ruins of Olympus and before the gates at least a km of wall to wall restaurants and mainly tree house dwellings rather than bungalows. Nearly all were closed and it was quite an eerie feeling walking through
The Lycian way goes straight through the ruins of Olympus, and although the guide suggests it’s free for walkers it’s no longer the case. The ruins are quite extensive and mainly built around 1-2AD. It was a big town, built on both sides of the river and mainly Christian in a land of muslims. The ruins finish at the seaside where the river meats the sea.
It was then a long walk along a pebbly and sandy beach with not many people in the water which was pretty rough and we also noticed lots of rubbish and debris churning in the ways. We then entered the township of Cirali through the markets at the West end of what would be another very spread out town
Once again a long road of restaurants and bungalow hotels. We found a restaurant selling hamburgers (a change from Gozleme) and the owner told us out hotel was down the road to the beach and turn left. We did and then asked for more directions. Another 500 mtrs. About 1.5 kms later new directions suggested another 500 mts. We found it. It must be at the most eastern point of the town. We have a nice room set about another 300 meters inland from reception and the dining area but for once it was a buffet dinner. Grilled fish on the BBQ and it meant not having a table covered with dishes of everything we couldn’t eat and much reduced waste.
We think we have worked out a bit of a short cut to the trail which will take us up into the mountains. It will mean not having to double back into town and adding another 6 kms onto our journey
Jane treks Lycian Way 2022 