Belos to Karaöz
Starting km: 264
Finishing km: 310
Distance walked: 23km*
*Today we took the trail guide's advice and took public transport to skip over about 20km of walking along the coast next to the busy D400 highway.
This was mostly sort of a repositioning day, getting us ready for the next section of the trail. We woke to a herd of about 200 goats climbing up past our tent to the valley around and above us.
We had a couple of km walk down the rough, loose limestone cobbles at the bottom of the valley, and had a quick visit to the ruins of yet another Lycian city, Belos. They're just everywhere in this part of the world!
Soon after Belos, we joined a winding, twisting but paved road that took us all the way down to the town of Finike. At Finike we did a wee bit of shopping, then took a Dolmus (minibus) to the town of Kumluca, and then (with a minor navigational error that a couple of kind dolmus drivers helped us correct) down to the town of Mavikent.
It was a 2.5km walk down to the beach to rejoin the trail. The beach was either loose, rubbish strewn sand or small rocks near the water, so we carried on along the road until the beach disappeared and the road was the only choice left anyway.
9km on said road, past some really beautiful bays and beaches, and we arrived at Karaöz, the last town before the coast of the Lycian peninsula turns north again.
We spent a night at the Gelidonya pansiyon. A bed and a shower alone would have qualified the place as wonderful, but the super friendly hosts, and the huuuuge and delicious dinner (kofte [spiced meatballs] and chips, beans in spicy tomato sauce, salad, mustard-like greens, fresh goat yogurt that was funky and almost still fermenting, bowls of bulgur, bread and fruit. Even writing it down is hard work, much less eating it!)
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