Gelemiş to Kalkan via ruins of Patara | 28.9km
I woke up at 8am with a beer and raki hangover and left my bag at the pansiyon to walk the few kilometes to the sea and to see the ruins of Patara. Interesting sights: the reconstructed Lycian league Assembly building that now serves as a posh open-air theatre, the amphitheatre & old city entrance with a pipe where part of the aqueduct I followed the previous day ended.
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| City entrance |
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| Water pool at city entrance fed by the aqueduct |
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| Panoramic view from atop the reconstructed Lycian League Assembly building |
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| View from Lycian Way looking back down on Patara |
I grabbed an expensive Nescafe at a beach cafe blaring sh1te music, which remained on despite my request to turn it off and their being no other clientelle, and then headed back into Gelemiş for a late menemen breakfast before setting off for Kalkan.
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| The beach, complete with sh1tty beach cafe |
If I'd known beforehand and timed it better I could have joined the annual Gelemiş walk from Akbel to Gelemiş, pausing for lunch at the hilltop above the village. I'd done that route the previous day and was now heading out and past the incoming day hikers. The chorus of "you're going the wrong way!" only got funnier the more I heard it...
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| Hilltop lunch queue |
The anti-clockwise route around Eren Tepe was a pure mind-and-foot-numbing slog along gravel paths back to the aqueduct in sweltering heat. A few beautiful sea views broke up the tedium.
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| Time to take a break for a swim! |
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| Crystal clear |
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| the views... |
After a late lunch at the aqueduct, I took the craggy, dangerous route to Kalkan that involved scrambling up and down razor sharp rocks and cliffs for 4km before levelling out into paths and finally a gravel road into Kalkan. Darkness was descending and with no camping options I holed up for the night in Gul Pansiyon (single room: TL70) and went out to a local ocakbaşı for a big portion of iskender kebab.
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