The top of a big hill above Gaviragili to Xanthos
Starting km: 44
Finishing km: 70
Distance walked: 26km*
*It became clear today that neither the GPS track we're using for our navigation, nor the text from the trail guide are providing accurate distances. The GPS track misses out on lots of switchbacks, but when the trail is going in straight lines, the trail guide distances often don't match measurements on a map. So while today we probably walked closer to 30km than 26, I'm just going to continue to stick with the distances from the GPS track.
Sarah did great on the long, steep, downhill given her blistered foot. It was pretty, but we were mostly concerned with getting it over with because we knew that when we got to the bottom it was jandal territory for the whole rest of the day.
At the bottom of the hill we joined the road through the non-village (these days it's just two or three small resort hotels) of Gavriagili. The road carried on around a large hill, before we left for a walk through our first good Lycian ruins, the military outpost and port-guard of Pydnai. It's in ruins except for the outer walls and an much newer Byzantine church, but the trail goes literally right through it, which was fun.
We exited the ruins and headed back towards the beach (first time at sea level in three days of walking a coastal trail) and the Patara Green Park. I'd formed a bit of an enmity towards the place, which had been advertising itself with signs along the trail since the start, but we let it slide long enough to charge my phone, have an overpriced (but okay quality… lousy olives, good cheese, great cucumber) Turkish breakfast. We felt we deserved it after three nights camping and the morning's big descent.
After three days of big mountains it was a bit of a shock to be in a wide, flat river valley. The whole afternoon was spent wandering along roads amongst row upon row upon row upon row of greenhouses growing tomatoes (and, rarely, other crops). The farmers' houses were right amongst their "fields", and we got friendly greetings from most everyone (except for the odd overprotective dog). Several people had even set up drinking water dispensers in front of their homes or gardens, which was an especial treat as, even in October when it's only about 25°C, walking 15km in the sun is thirsty work.
Along the way we visited Letoon, the most important Lycian religious centre. Dedicated to Leto and her children (by Zeus) Apollo and Artemis, the complex had a well preserved theatre, temples for each of the three and a sacred spring which is supposedly where, while on the run from Hera (Zeus' jealous wife) Leto transformed several unfriendly local people into frogs (which still hop and croak happily around the spring and the Lycian pools).
From there it was (mercifully) only 5km of busy road into the town of Kinik and a further 1km to the archaeological site of Xanthos. Xanthos was a major Lycian city. And while it isn't the grand city it once was (it was destroyed several times throughout its history, by everyone from the Sassanids to Alexander the Great, and finally, once it became part of Rome by the Romans themselves during the civil war) the theatre, several freestanding tombs and a really impressive walkway still stand out as highlights amongst the foundations and crumbled structures.
Our planned campsite around the back of the Xanthos site, had recently been fenced in to help preserve the site, but thankfully it wasn't much further to a lovely little piece of nice flat land where we're currently being annoyed by a single barking dog that followed us here from the main entrance (where it really ought to have just stayed… The staff put out dog food and water for it there).
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