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

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Day-3 | Lush trekking out from Alinca

Faralya to Boğaziçi | 25.5km

From Faralya along a lush trail winding through forests and stepped meadows and into Kabak. 

Lush trails and beautiful views

Here I took the foolhardy option that everyone else seemed to be avoiding and made the steep climb down to Kabak beach and it's nouveau hippy communes. 

Kabak beach

Bloody hippies

I made a brew on the beach, had a bite to eat and then climbed back up the valley following the path of a stream and a small detour to the pretty-but-not-worth-the-effort Kabak waterfall to cool my feet.

Sweet spot for a brew

Kabak waterfall... ahhhh

Then it was a short climb into the village of Alinca before heading onto a wonderful piece of trail, scaling down scree slopes, climbing boulders, edging cliffs with the most incredible views down to the sea. 

Scree climb up the valley

A tempting descent to another beach.. not this time though

Beautiful views :)

Ending in a pine forest trail where I made the in-hindsight-incorrect decision to head inland to Bogazici and toward the ruins of Sidyma instead of taking the coast trail to Gey. Wrong in that it was all dull trails, roads and clomping along with little to see. 

Meadow before Bogazici... The highlight

With night closing in I found a secluded camp spot half way up the hill from Bogazici, dined on a fine cheesy pöte noodlé with a 2015 chateau cup-a-soup and settled in for the night.

Campsite no. 3

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Day-2 | Bloody Hail

Kirne trail to Faralya | 11.4km

German Albert caught up with me as I was breaking camp. The clothes were still strewn about the trail he said; it looks as though the goatherd is sleeping it off somewhere up in the mountains. 

Looking back on Ölüdeniz and the first night's campsite (plateau on right)

Breakfasted and caffeinated I set out and caught up with Albert again a bit later at a shack that was a cafe in construction where they were making him tea, so I joined in and stocked up on water. The mist rising up over the mountains was beautiful but foreboding. The trail from there curved around a stepped valley where it began to lightly rain. And then into a steep sided valley where the skies began to darken.

Storm brewing...

Part way into the valley the lightning started and the thunder began booming around the valley. The rain started. Then came the hail. I took shelter in a dry water gulley from the lightning cracking down above me. The dry gulley wasn't dry for long and I was soon stood up to my ankles in fast flowing storm water, covered in hailstones and with mud and stone debris puking down on my head from the top of the cutting above. I had the kit for rain but not storms and had been caught unaware by the speed that the storm came in. Drenched I took a lull in the storm to push on to Kirne to find proper shelter.

Drowned rat

I had a couple of teas in a small cafe in Kirne, waited to see if Albert showed up and when he didn't I pressed on, presuming he'd stayed up somewhere sheltered for longer. As I was passing through Faralya by Butterfly Valley another storm started up ahead so I called it a day and holed up in a small pansiyon to dry and tend my wounds.

My original idea was to climb down into Butterfly Valley, dangerous on a good day without a rucksack but suicide today given the weather - so a line was put through that.

Butterfly Valley from above

2nd night's 'campsite'

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