Tuncays friend ( we still don’t know his name) drove us up the mountain to our staring point at Elmayani. I don’t think he has driven that way before, nor on mountain roads, nor on dirt roads. Within 5 minutes he stoped the car and went and asked at a house for directions. He was so fascinated with the mountain road that he was constantly looking up for rock falls and constantly looking out at the views. The road was only one lane most of the way and very windy with lots of switch backs. All I wanted to yell out was ‘for gods sake watch the bloody road mate’. At times all I wanted to do was jump out and walk. It seemed a lot safer option. We eventually got to our starting point where a man immediately came out of a house and tried to sell us drinks and tea. I was almost in need of something a lot stronger. On the way up we actually saw 3 cows on the road, our first for the whole trip but they had gone by the time we walked down. The walk down was virtually all the way down on the road we had driven up and we both relaxed and chatted more than the whole walk as it was one of the few times we didn’t have to watch every step nor worry about slipping. It was quite pretty with great views of the mountains and Antalya.
We made it into town around 1 pm and noticed that the only advertised cafe was closed so thought it was going to be another lunch of muesli bars and nuts. We started walking towards home and just as we walked past the mosque there was the call to prayer and we both nearly jumped out of our skin. I have a funny video of Danny singing along but dare not publish it until we get out of the country but soon after I took it a man called for us to come over. I thought oh no I’m in real trouble now, he’s going to take us to task for making fun of the call to prayer. Thankfully all he wanted to do was give us pomegranates, but got quite upset when we only took one and not the three on offer. We ended up giving it to Tuncay.
We walked up to our turn off to Tuncays home and for some reason kept walking and extra few hundred mts. We were actually looking for a shady rock to sit and eat our snacks but we found a road side stall with a few men sitting around drinking tea. We asked if they sold food and the owner opened a fridge and showed us a couple of carcasses and indicated he could cook us meat. It could have been lamb but most likely goat. We sat on his rickety balcony and looked at all the rubbish below. Very typical. There seems to be no concept of rubbish collection, recycling, or protecting the environment. Anyway the usual salad appeared followed by a covered dish and a great voila as he lived the lid which was the meat dish neatly covered by slices of bread. It was tough but tasty. He then brought out a bowl of soup for us to share which was terrible. We couldn’t eat it. It’s their traditional sour yoghurt soup with a bit of rice and a bit of oil on top. It’s usually olive oil but in this case he had used the oil from the meat juices.
It was then home to Tuncays. I managed to put my washing out on his balcony amongst all the cats, their food and litter trays. I’ve lost count of his cats but safe to say there are more than 10. I also managed to stuff his door handle so had to wait for him to get home to retrieve my washing. Dinner was eggplant and rice and the usual salad. Far from inspiring.
Jane treks Lycian Way 2022 