The Lycian Way

Current Location: Finike, Turkey
Current Position: 36 17.63 N 30 08.98 E
Next Destination: Hanging here for the winter

The Lycian Way is the first waymarked long distance footpath in Turkey. It stretches from Fethiye to Antalya, through the Teke Peninsula (historically known as Lycia). The Lycian Way is not only scenic (traveling along the coastline as well as high into the cliffs through largely uninhabited areas), but it also offers an opportunity to see the lingering of ancient civilizations. Swimming. Views. Nature. History. The Lycian Way has it all and was, in fact, named one of the Sunday Times World’s Ten Best Walks.

Given that the Lycian Way comes right through Finike, how could we not walk at least part of this trail? The entire trail is more than 500km and can take weeks to complete. We, along with four friends, decided it would be a grand idea to do a day hike, hopefully making it from Finike to Belos and back. Of course, since we notoriously tend to end up doing things the hard way, the area of the trail we would be walking is deemed one of the most difficult!!!

BlurbBits for this Entry w/Location

At least twice we had looked for the start of the walk in Finike, and while we now thought we had a pretty good idea where it was (based on the book "The Lycian Way", and Google Earth), the last thing we wanted was to start our hike out "lost". So, odd as it may sound, we took a taxi to the trail. Much of the trail in the Finike area has been bulldozed into somewhat of a rocky tractor road; one can still get onto the original trail in places (walking more in the forest then the cleared rocky road). We started in the forest, and opted to climb up to the road when we lost site of the waymarks. Luckily it was early morning and no longer summer, because it didn’t take long before the steep incline had us all sweating, and huffing and puffing.

The great thing for us, all cruisers, about this part of the hike was that although the incline was difficult it brought us into the mountains, and eventually along the ridgeline. I hadn’t realized just how much I missed the mountains – it was great to get away from the sea for a few hours.

The first 4 km brought us up to about 650 meters. Along the way we came across a large herd of beautiful goats and a shepherd. We also came upon a field of ancient walls and Lycian tombs.

Another hour and half or so brought us to the ridgeline and magnificent views looking out over the town of Demre with views of Kekova Island in the background. We stopped for lunch, enjoying the peace and quiet and terrific scenery, before heading up, along the ridge, to Belos.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. The sun was out and not a cloud in the sky, yet the air was cool enough to not wear us out. We’d thought that we’d be dealing with a lot of wind – especially in Belos, which is about 910 meters above sea level, but it was still as could be. Belos is an ancient town littered with ruins and huge sarcophagi. Rooms and walls still stand complete, and everything seemed even more spectacular with the views of Kekova as the backdrop. We spent a leisurely amount of time walking around the ancient town, guessing as to what might have been what and trying to imagine life thousands of years ago. What we especially were in awe of was how they managed to live so high in the mountains – here we had only walked a portion of the trail, with light packs, and were feeling our exhaustion – these people had moved, carrying everything they owned, old and young, and not wearing fancy hiking boots! It was a perfect spot for protection, with stonewalls to protect them and the long distance from the sea to discourage pirates.

It was very cool to have Belos to our own. The ruins of Myra and Demre, which we had visited a few weeks earlier, were brilliant, but there is something to be said for the quiet solitude in walking amongst the ancient city, undisturbed by the masses.

On the way back we had planned on a little side trek to Dinek, but the markings weren’t clear to us, and knowing we still had a long walk back to Finike ahead we didn’t want to wonder "aimlessly" … maybe another day!

I seem to never give downhill trekking the credit it is due. The entire way up all I could think was "at least coming back will be downhill". But it doesn’t take long, especially on steep terrain with loose stones that are uncomfortable to walk on, before I began to wonder if going up wasn’t better! People think that cruising keeps us in shape, but in truth we live pretty sedentary lives – maybe not compared to the average land-lubber American, but in terms of tackling a mountainous 20-24 km day hike, we are in sad shape! It seemed that the last bit of the return trip just kept going and going and going. But at last we were back in Finike – where our first stop was the beer garden just outside the marina!

It was a fantastic day, well worth the effort and the soreness that followed over the next few days. We are hopefully that we can do another section of the Lycian Way next spring when we start cruising again … maybe we ought to start exercising now!