O Camiño Dos Faros - Day 1

Just finished an amazing lunch at the end of a great day's walking. Michelin star food and fabulous scenery, yes I'm back in Spain. I'm walking the Camiño Dos Faros, the Lighthouse Way, a 200 km walk around the northwest corner of Spain. The coastline is known as the Costa de Morte, a name given to it by English sailors for sadly obvious reasons. Well we have survived our first 12 km and it's definitely thumbs up, so far so good.

Fishermen at Malpica

On the GR1 with Rebecca and Barry

Rebecca and Barry are zooming along the GR1 as I write, heading from east to west and have now completed Stage 7.  Lovely to get their feedback - very helpful - and the pictures bring back great memories of Spain.  I remember Kin from my last trip.  Christine and I were the only guests, but she still made us welcome and prepared the most wonderful food.  You can follow their progress by going to this link.  All the pictures in this blog are from Rebecca and Barry.

"We've just reached Gironella after 10 walking days from the coast. We are charmed by the GR1 so far and the best is still to come - heading into the Sierra de Cadi next. Your GPS route track and the Viewranger map tiles (which were preselected for me by the app and which I downloaded before we left) have been excellent and invaluable. Walking against the guidebook, and with some very sketchy waymarking, it would have been a nightmare trying to navigate without it. There have been a couple of re-routes since your track, but nothing major. Walking with a GPS which records our progress and mileage in real time has been a revelation to me - although I am still a bit worried about such reliance on fallible technology!

GR1 - Accommodation Updates

Judging by the emails I'm getting, hikers from all over the world are making their way to Spain to walk the GR1 with the help of my guide book  Fingers crossed, I am of course totally confident will find their way,  agree with me that this is an amazing walk and come back making plans for their next trip to Spain.

On the GR1 to Paresotas

The guide is based on my style of walking and involves going from place to place and staying in local accommodation.  Historically, of course, the Spanish countryside was awash with locally run bars, restaurants, and hotels, but as the countryside emptied the purchasing power to support these facilities declined dramatically.  Some of those that remain are hanging on by the skin of their teeth and hopefully the business provided by GR1 walkers will make a small but valuable contribution to their survival.  Inevitably, however 'things change' and places close.  More optimistically new places open up or more likely as more people walk the route additional places to stay are found, places that despite my best efforts I missed.  It's amazing, but even in this day and age some 'hotels' in Spain keep their electronic footprint to the absolute minimum and exist despite not having email never mind a website.

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.