Lycian Way Day 1: Hisaronu to Near Kirme

Hisaronu to Near Kirme

Starting km: 0

Finishing km: 9

Distance walked: 9km

The bus trip from Antalya to Fethiye via the inland route takes about 3.5 hours.  It's a pretty special drive, climbing up a monumental mountain gorge and through rugged peaks before settling in and doing the bulk of the work over a rolling plateau of mixed farmland and pine forest.

In Fethiye we had a quick glass of Ayran (a wonderful, slightlt salty, slightly sour yogurt-like drink that's ubiquitous in Turkey) then caught a minibus for the quick ride up to Hisaronu where the trail officially starts.  We followed a minor road up towards a hotel, looking down 400m towards Oludeniz and the most photographed beach in Turkey and up towards the dozens of paragliders making their way there from a mountain top still higher above us.  Even through the haze it was pretty lovely.

The road turned into a 4wd track, then into the first of many ancient Lycian roads.  The trail was originally laid out by British historian Kate Clow in 1995 and spends a lot of its time following the roads of the ancient Lycian League.  The Lycians were contemporaries of the Romans, and their cities and tombs dot the trail as well, so not only do you have amazing beaches and spectacular mountains on the trail, you get loads of classical ruins as well. 

The clouds came down to greet us and keep us cool as we finished a 400m climb up in a seemingly empty village of brand new, almost complete houses.

From there it was back down again, passing several beekeepers camps, many of them with literally hundreds of hives.  We also spent the last bit of the afternoon enjoying amazing views of 1969m Baba Dag as it and the adjacent cliffs and peaks popped in and out behind the clouds.

Having walked along its feet we decided to make camp for the night around 16:45 while we could still enjoy the late golden sun on the cliff faces.

We're just now getting ready for bed with the hum of millions of bees also heading home to bed as background noise.

Oh, we saw our first goats of the trail, and I helped a tortoise cross the road today too.