Lycian Way
About 5 to 10 years ago Turkey built a long distance hiking trail that goes for several hundred kilometers in the sparsely populated Turquoise Coast region.
Evan and I decided to do a two or three day hike near the town of Kas. After a fair amount of wild gesticulations we managed to explain to the inn keepers who spoke no English that we were going to return tomorrow but wanted to leave most of our stuff there. Our idea was to hike pretty lightly, and sleep and get dinner at a pension about 25 kilometers along the way. Little did we know it would be more challenging getting there than we thought.
The hike was beautiful, it weaved between inland craggy mountains full of olive and pomegranate trees and the coast, which is a shockingly bright shade of blue. This part of the coast has no roads, so it is isolated and really beautiful, with many narrow inlets framed by mountains on either side and islands in the distance. The inland areas were equally cool, with miles and miles of stone walls and ruins from over a thousand years ago.
Well, we had hiked about 6 hours when we saw a sign for the pension where we were planning on staying. It said it was 20 kilometers (12 miles away). Even though we had a map of the trail and our guide book confirmed the map, I guess it was not right and the hotel was too far.
When we figured this out, we had to change course, following a dirt road back to the town where we started. One of the redeeming features of the wrong turn is we walked by a shepherd woman who shimmied up a pole to give us some grapes.
We got a lift part of the way and ended up back at the inn where we had started. The shop keepers seemed very confused and a little amused to see us back. Without speaking the same language, we can only wonder.
Evan and I decided to do a two or three day hike near the town of Kas. After a fair amount of wild gesticulations we managed to explain to the inn keepers who spoke no English that we were going to return tomorrow but wanted to leave most of our stuff there. Our idea was to hike pretty lightly, and sleep and get dinner at a pension about 25 kilometers along the way. Little did we know it would be more challenging getting there than we thought.
The hike was beautiful, it weaved between inland craggy mountains full of olive and pomegranate trees and the coast, which is a shockingly bright shade of blue. This part of the coast has no roads, so it is isolated and really beautiful, with many narrow inlets framed by mountains on either side and islands in the distance. The inland areas were equally cool, with miles and miles of stone walls and ruins from over a thousand years ago.
Well, we had hiked about 6 hours when we saw a sign for the pension where we were planning on staying. It said it was 20 kilometers (12 miles away). Even though we had a map of the trail and our guide book confirmed the map, I guess it was not right and the hotel was too far.
When we figured this out, we had to change course, following a dirt road back to the town where we started. One of the redeeming features of the wrong turn is we walked by a shepherd woman who shimmied up a pole to give us some grapes.
We got a lift part of the way and ended up back at the inn where we had started. The shop keepers seemed very confused and a little amused to see us back. Without speaking the same language, we can only wonder.
posted by JNA | 8:46 AM
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