Lycian Way Day 1

I'm in Turkey and the plan is to spend the next 8 days walking from east to west along the Lycian Way. After flying into Antalya yesterday I stayed at Göynük last night and today walked inland up a gorge. So far so go. Today was a lot tougher than I expected, partly because I spent an hour trying to find the hotel at the end and partly because it was my first big walk this year. 25kms and about 2000m of climb took 9 hours and I was glad when it was finally over. Tomorrow's another big walk but it's downhill back to the coast.

The walking was good rather than spectacular, in a gorge and mainly in trees. The path was well marked and generally easy to follow. Apart from the last bit I had the route plotted on my GPS but I hardly ever had to use it.

Today the weather was perfect for walking. Clear blue skies but warm rather than hot. The forecast for tomorrow is not so good.










Although I've only seen three other walkers today the Lycian Way is clearly quite a big deal for the tourist industry once you get away from the huge resorts near Antalya. With the bad
press associated with terrorism, the boycott by Russia and the refugee crisis, a disastrous tourist season is anticipated. The growing interest in the Lycian Way is seen as a tiny but very welcome bit of good news.



You can now find this route on my Viewranger page by following this link.  I have edited the route to provide the most direct route to the hotel at the end.

2 comments:

  1. Is it snow on Tahtalı Dağı / Mount Olympos now?
    And is that the reason why you choose to walk the coastal route, instead of the inland route crossing over the shoulder of Mount Olympos? The trail over Olympos is great.
    The waymarking in the Göynük gorge was good, except for one part (which do not have any consequences when you walk from Göynük instead of down to it).
    And, why didn't you start from Fethiye/Ovacik?
    Happy trails!

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    Replies
    1. Hi there

      I'm walking East to West just because of my flights from the UK, couldn't find a flight from the other end this time of year. There is snow on Olympos and I've only got 9 days so choices had to be made - always another year.

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