It was a really early start as we were being driven to the other side of the mountain for our final descent and the finish of the walk. Our itinerary was to walk up and over the mountain but to get to that drop off point it would be an 80 kms drive as there is no direct route only a maze of mountain roads. Tuncay had other transport jobs so to make it easier on everyone we decided on a drop off point that would only give us about 6 kms to walk. Tuncay also got lost and was constantly stopping to use his phones GPS and then managed to drive with one hand while observing his phone in the other. It was a nightmare with him overtaking on mountain corners and more than once I thought we were not going to make it. At one stage about 4 dogs rushed out to bark at the car and I’m sure I heard a thud. He drove on not bothering to check. I knew he was taking wrong turns as I was following our progress with my GPS but as much as I tried to let him know we soldiered on. At the last moment he realised he was wrong and was going to turn around, take us down and try the correct road up. Nope I was out of there. I could see that if we got out and walked we were only about 500 mts off the track about a km further back up the track than we had intended. We got out, watched him turn around and sat down to thank our lucky stars we were still alive.
We started walking down the hill and immediately realised we were being followed by a young dog. We let it go on for a while and had a break at some ruins and hoped it would go away. It didn’t.
It was a pretty walk through the forest but it soon became obvious that most people don’t walk these last two – three days. Many stop at Goynuk which was the old start/finish point. The track was overgrown, hard to find and poorly marked. It was also very slippery in parts. The rocks on some slopes were tiny and it was like stepping on ball bearings. In other parts steep slopes were covered in a thick blanket of pine needles and pine cones. They are also hard to walk on, you just can’t get any grip. It wasn’t long before I took my first slip. Ouch. The dog kept following us and we tried to shoo it home and we tried stopping and seeing if it would go past. Then at a moment where Danny was negotiating a pine needle slope it went into the back of his knees and he went down. Danny swore at the dog and it scurried off but we could still hear it through the bush for a while. We came down picking our way through stony rock falls and onto a road. Yep there was the dog sitting on the road waiting for us! It followed us again along the road and then we had to tune off the road and it stayed put. Finally we had lost it. Once again it was a final zig zag down the last bit of the mountain to the final river crossing. Danny started off on the stepping stones and gave up half way across and just walked through the water. We then came out onto a camping park full of rock climbing enthusiasts. We could actually see several up on the cliff faces. We knew that there was a cafe there but we needed to firstly find the sign for photo opportunities and also our meeting place with Tuncay about another km down the road. We did both but as it was only about 11 am and our meeting time was between 12-2 we walked back to the cafe and manage to get a tuna sandwich the only thing on the menu. Guess who should be there laying on the lawn, our dog. We don’t know if that was his home or if he was still lost and thought it was a hopeful place to get a feed. We walked back to the meeting place and thankfully Tuncay turned up about 15 minutes later. We were done.
It was then another perilous drive into Antalya, though the suburban sprawl and maze of highways and short cuts through back streets and a chunk of road rage to the gates of the ancient city centre. Only certain vehicles are allowed into the city which is a maze of narrow one way streets and ancient ottoman houses. After more directions and a slight mix up of hotels we were there. It was a relief to say goodbye to Tuncay. We have a nice room in an old Ottoman house and for us it was a shower and a lie down and off for drinks at a courtyard around the corner. It is such a pretty town. I think a lot of tourist come for day tours and it’s pretty quiet in the evenings, but they do like their night clubs. The first thing that I noticed is the cleanliness. There is no rubbish. Still lots of cats but not as many as we have seen. We also found a nice restaurant and it was lamb chops for dinner. Quite a nice change from meat balls and a long way from Tuncays efforts. It was also nice to eat later in the evening and get into bed later than 8 pm knowing we didn’t have to get up and put walking boots on tomorrow. The walk is done!!!
Jane treks Lycian Way 2022 