Days 2 & 3: Kabak to Gavurağlı

Aug 28

Aug 28 Days 2 & 3: Kabak to Gavurağlı

Zeynep Darendeliler

Lycian Way

These two days took us from sea level at Kabak Bay to a number of villages in the mountains (Alınca, Gey and Bel), before taking us all the way back to sea level. Our legs need rest.

The walk is through pine forest, olive groves and terraced fields, except for a few portions on dirt car roads, which radiate as much heat as the sun.

The portion from Kabak Bay to Alınca is a steady steep incline for about 750 meters - spectacular views of the bay all along.

With a 6.30am start, we arrived at Alınca around 11am and decided to hunker down until the high heat of the day passed. Alınca is a sleepy village, not very remarkable or charming on its own, but with drastic views of the sea from the mountains. We pitched a tent at Hasan’s place for a few hours - with some gözlemes for lunch.

While Corey read, I listened to Hasan, a 63 year old retiree, who turned out to be a very avid talker (and one who does not understand clues about Zeynep wanting to take a nap).

In short:

Alınca currently has 25 households, 10 of which are new households from İstanbul and Ankara who bought land in the last 5 years. Most of the other households rely on pensions (young people have left) and Lycian Way tourism for income. There is much competition and some bad blood between various service providers. And some rumors of ‘questionable activities’ happening in places other than Hasan’s.

The village uses well water that dries up in the summer. The municipality drives in water tankers to fill the well - water is scarce and expensive. We could see one of the new houses built by an İstanbullite newcomer however, with a grass roof covering the entire house. Apparently they had the money to drill low enough to be able to water the grass year round!

Around 3pm, we left Alınca for Gey. It’s still too damn hot at 3! After I almost had a heat stroke, we made it to Gey - a pretty, more prosperous and idyllic looking village with entire households, strictly terraced and tilled and maintained fields.

We asked around and were told to pitch our tent in the primary school yard. There were lots of boys and girls playing around, who were very curious about our tent and very shy in our presence. And then of course, they promptly forgot about us and the tent and played football in their slippers. (The boys did, the girls cheered from atop the slide.)

No restaurants in the village, but the owner of the little bakkal offered that his wife, Hatice Hanım, could cook for and feed us. Good food, warm feelings.

Turns out the mosque is right next to the school yard and the speakers are sort of busted - so we woke up at 5.15am the next day to a müezzin roaring the ezan live. So we had another early start at 6am, going from Gey to Bel, taking about 2 hours.

In Bel, while we were in a hurry to move on to cover more ground before the heat, I made the mistake of asking a teyze if I could have a glass of tea if they had some going.

Only after some tea, bread, cheese, olives, cucumbers, potatoes, dried figs and hand-peeled cactus pears were we able to extricate ourselves - still seemingly too rushed out the door for our hosts and me worrying about ayıp. (Of course this gave me time to ask some questions...Bel has 25 houses, but only 10-12 have families living in them. Most young families / men move to the greenhouse farms along the coast to grow tomatoes.)

The steep downhill slope form Bel to Gavurağlı was treacherous ankle-spraining terrain with lots of loose rock and pebble, and took us about 2.5 hours. Near the end, the trail is fully exposed to the sun and even the 11.30am heat was killing both of us.

So - we asked for a car ride from Gavurağlı to a nearby camping site, Patara Camping Park, where we currently find ourselves, splashing in the sea, reading under the shade.

Day 2: Kabak to Gey, via Alınca