Days 0 & 1: Early Lessons on the Lycian Way
The first days of our Lycian Adventure have been full of ups and downs… Get it? Because we’re hiking? baDUM!
Ok, but seriously, we've gotten some solid early education. In order of appearance:
Get to the airport early. You're not the only one flying during the August holiday season, and Turks refuse to queue.
Check the location of the hotel. The hotel's pin on Google Maps was right next to the trail head. The actual hotel was very not. That said, we found ourselves in a lovely poolside bungalow with frigid air conditioning, so not a bad place to start.
Download maps. I'm an evangelical for the Garmin inReach GPS and messaging devices. But they don't come with maps of every country pre-loaded, which I remembered only after we left the apartment. Fortunately, the Garmin Explore app on our phones has guided us perfectly well.
Look up. The trail thus far hasn't been too treacherous, but this is still look-at-where-you-walk territory, so from time to time we've looked up and been totally floored by the views. The hills are a pain to climb but the panoramas are well worth it.
Beware the wildlife. These hills are filthy with 🐐. Big goats, small goats, cute goats. We talk loudly to them and so no problem. The stuff-of-nightmares swarms of 🐝 are something else entirely. These hills have lots of honey production, and there are bee… farms?… everywhere, including on the marked trail. Zeynep has no fear, Corey is a coward.
The Way is not the way. The Lycian Way is blazed with red and white waymarks. In theory. Sometimes. We'd read other hikers' accounts of getting lost in the absence of clear blazes, so we got the NGO that pioneered the trail to send us the “official” GPS track. Which sometimes cuts across aforementioned bee farms, a resort's bar and restaurant (not kidding), and other private property. Fortunately the locals are very kind and used to lost hikers' saying “Likya Yolu nerede?”
Get off the trail by 11 (aka, it's HOT). We got a 630a start to take advantage of the morning cool, and while we were both sweating plenty it wasn't actually too hot. Until suddenly, around 1030a, it really was. Conveniently, we reached our planned destination of Faralya at 11a. So we cooled our jets (and internal organs) for a few hours at a disturbingly charming BnB overlooking Butterfly Valley. The very tasty köftes didn't hurt.
Know when to stop. We made unexpectedly good time in the morning, so after a few midday hours in the shade, we pushed on to Kabak Beach. On arrival two hours later, we weren't sure it was the right call. It's still terribly hot at 2p, and we arrived a little wiped out to find Kabak Beach actually one giant hotel/camping complex for hippies and partiers. We were hot a tired and didn't want to fight hippies for tent space, so we sprung for an air conditioned bungalow.
Well educated and refreshed after a dip in the sea, now onto scoping the (of questionable accuracy) track for tomorrow, and making plans with all these lessons in mind. It was a good first day, we felt strong on the trail, and have high hopes tomorrow will be smoother sailing!
Total distance - 20.12 kilometers
Total elevation gain - 797 meters
Total walking time - 6 hours 20 minutes
