8 Days on the Lycian Way

In March 2016 I walked for 8 days along the Lycian Way.  It was my first self organised walk in Turkey and I was impressed.

The Lycian Way extends for 540km along Turkey's south coast between the cities of Fethiye and Antalya.  It's a beautiful and interesting landscape.  Most of the walk is coastal although because the countryside is mountainous inland excursions quickly reach an altitude of over 1800m. It's also packed with historical sites (Lycia was semi-independent state co-existing with both the Greek and Roman empires) many of which are open and informal.

Aquaduct at Phaselis

Lycian Way Day 8

Purple House to Kas. 26.6km 9.6hrs

The last day of my trip along the Lycian Way was both interesting and eventful.

At breakfast I chatted with the owner of 'Purple House'. He's been here for 10 years and took the derelict farmhouse over from his grandfather having previously worked in, of all places, a nightclub. He met his wife 3 years later and they live here with their son who they educate themselves. They are virtually self-sufficient. Describing the life the biggest issue is water which has to be collected as it rains in the winter, stored in cisterns, and then rationed carefully through the summer. It's limestone country and there are no natural springs. As he built his little house the network of pipes and cisterns surrounding the property has grown and includes a separate sea water system which they use for washing. There is a green house and everything in it has to be watered.

Lycian Way Day 7

If there weren't any sights to see you really wouldn't want to stay in Demre. It's not very nice and my hotel was grim.

Leaving the place this morning my mood was not improved by what was definitely the worst breakfast I'd had in Turkey, truly minimal. Escaping the place then involved a 3km road side slog. I was so desperate to finish it, I almost missed the first highlight of the day, Andriake.

Lycian Way Day 6

Unless you're up for a bit of camping it's impossible to walk the whole of Lycian Way. I'm in Demre at the moment. Walking from Finiki, the town on the coast to the east, involves a 20 hr walk through Taurus Mountains where there is no accommodation. I don't really do camping and the mountains are covered in snow so I came by car.

My 'taxi driver' was the host from the bed breakfast in Karaöz. He explained to me that every bit of flat terrain on south coast is covered with green houses and polytunnels. These grow tomatoes, aubergines and peppers in the winter but are left empty in the summer because they are too hot. Potentially this is a brilliant system because it means that the locals that can then forget about vegetables and look after tourists instead (if they turn up).

Demre is in middle of one of those flat places and at times to spot the town amongst the greenhouses. As well as vegetables it also has two UNESCO world heritage sights so instead of walking I did a bit of sightseeing.

Lycian Way Day 5

Adrasan to Karaöz 22km 6hrs 20mins

Today's walk was another good one although like yesterday much of it was in trees. It was a coastal walk and involved going out on one side of a peninsula and back on the other.

Lycian Way Day 4

Çirali to Adrasan 17kms 6hrs

No coastal scenery today and although most of the walking was in trees it was very pleasant. 

Firstly for those of you who haven't enjoyed a Turkish breakfast a quick introduction. The basic approach is to give you so much 'stuff' that it's impossible to eat more than a fraction of what's provided. Today was typical. There were two sorts of bread, eggs, three sorts of cheese (hard, medium and soft), three sorts of olive, three sorts of jam, honey, tomatoes and cucumber, quince jelly (manzinella I think), fresh orange juice and coffee. It was all very nice but there was so much of it that I barely left an impression.

Lovely Turkish breakfast

Lycian Way Day 3

Tekirova to Çirali - 22km, 6hrs 50mins

Today's walk was lovely, nice length, great views and at a hot shower at the end, the first one I've had in Turkey.

After two days in the mountains away from the coast, today was what I had hoped for on the Lycian Way. Once past the huge and empty hotel complexes near Tekirova I entered a secluded world of almost perfect coastal scenery. Beautiful little coves, each crowned with a pebbly grey beach, were separated from each other by rocky headlands covered in ancient pine and oleander. Underneath the trees were patches of tiny iris and cistus. The initial route followed an easy but slightly ugly forest road but for last third this was replaced by a narrow path, probably formed by fishermen, that snaked its way dramatically to the end of the route. Great day hopefully captured by the pictures.

Lycian Way Day 2

I can't quite remember why I planned such a huge second day for my trip along the Lycian Way but it was a mistake. Although much of walk was downhill, 40kms was always going to be too far and indeed it was dark by the time I arrived in my hotel in Terikova. Having stayed at 1200m last night today's trip took me back down to the coast.

It started well. The young man at the Gol Mountain Lodge Hotel (primitive but good food) showed me where I had gone wrong last night and I was soon back on the main trail. The views of the snow capped Mount Tahtalid were great.

Fresh snow on Thatalid (2366m)

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.