Lycian Way Day 3: Near Alinca to the top of a big hill above Gaviragili

Near Alinca to the top of a big hill above Gaviragili

Starting km: 29

Finishing km: 44

Distance walked: 15km

The morning was just such a nice walk.  Bright sun, nice and cool, alternating between 4WD track and trail, then popping out on to an actual road for a few km of olive groves and terraced fields before the town of Gey, where we picked up some bread and biscuits from one of two little shops in town.

Later that morning we refilled our water bottles at an ancient domed cistern that was still in use.  Filled by rainwater during the winter, you fetched water by throwing a bucket in at the doorway (then straining it through your shirt and filtering it to ensure its drinkability!)  Fetching water from here was a supremely cool experience.

Before we'd even started the walk, Sarah already had a pretty nasty blister on her left heel.  She'd been able to do most of the morning in jandals, keeping the pressure off it, but after following some more rough roads after Gey the trail took us first right through some olive groves, then steeply down into a plateau within a valley.  This required shoes, and made for somewhat sore walking. Coupled with a group of about 80 teenagers tromping and telling their way down the track this took much of the enjoyment out of the walk. We let them pass though, and eventually climbed back up the far side of the valley and into the town of Bel.

We were joined there by a large group of Russian hikers.  We'd met an average of maybe ten other hikers a day, and the large majority of them came from eastern Europe (mostly Russians and Ukrainians).  I guess the Lycian Way is relatively nearby, inexpensive and, as we we're learning, a wonderfully beautiful walk.

After refilling our water in Bel and picking up some bread and a huuuuge pomegranate, we carried on up the road out of town.  We really wanted to give Sarah's heel time to….

Heal! So we only carried on as far as it was possible to walk in jandals.  This meant up past an almost abandoned settlement named Belceğiz. You could see that it was once a community of a few (no more than ten certainly) shepherd families, but now counted only a single inhabitant.

The pine forest had started to reclaim the village.  Within a kilometre all there was around was mature trees and a small crew of the lone shepherd's goats.

We found a lovely little campsite right before the trail began a big, long downhill.  This coincided with the spot where Sarah couldn't wear jandals any further, so we called it a night.  And we lived happily ever after. Except for discovering that the forest was absolutely swarming with vicious mosquitoes.  But there we were, so we tucked up in our tent and did our best to have polite conversations with the few hikers who walked past in the four hours til sunset.