Day-4 | ASTFR (Always Study The $#}*&% Route)

Boğazici to Patara Beach | 23.2km

I woke up at the crack of dawn, broke camp and, well fed and caffeinated, continued the climb up and out of Bogazici and onto the ruins of Sydma.

Climb up from Bogazici

The Lycian Sarcophagi just outside Sydma turned out to be more worthwhile than Sydma itself, where most of the ruins lay behind farmer's high stone walls. The path wove a path between the walls giving small glimpses of stones but nothing tempting enough to hop over and explore.

Lycian sarcophagi outside Sydma

Sydma ruins

I subsequently got lost climbing up the course of a dried up stream that wasn't well marked and had to resort to GPS and compass bearings to find my way to Bel, which turned out to be a dull valley village with little to pause for except water. It's only distinction being that it is the junction of the new coastal and original mountain routes so a lot of 'glampers'* and German hikers who were taking the coast route or walking this particular section congregated both here and also a little further up at Belecegiz mountain peak.

Looking back on the riverbed I got lost in

I hadn't checked the route properly so was unaware of the next section of trail after Belecegiz and got a bit of a shock when the quaint forest trail suddenly opened up into a sharp descent down the side of the mountain! A zig-zagging 650m fall over 3.5km of razor sharp rock and scree shodden terrain in blazing sunshine with little shade. The German hikers and I spent the descent overtaking each other again and again as we paused for breath under what little shade there was.

View from one of the more sane points of the descent from Bogazici

At the bottom I stopped at a little pansiyon and met all the German glampers* for ayran and to stock up on water. One guy, Morten, was also walking the whole route alone and camping so we teamed up and set off for the ruins of Pydnai and Patara beach. The ruins were pants and the beach wasn't up to much so we set up camp in the dunes, which was a bad idea given that everything ended up full of sand and the morning dew lingered leaving all my kit wet. 

Campsite #4 - sandy and wet

*glampers / glam campers = one who gets bused to start of select parts of a trail and then bused back to a hotel for a shower and slap up dinner afterwards