Alınca to Kalkan

On investigation, it looked like there was no reliable accommodation in Bel. Marleen and Nicole had no camping gear and I was only planning to camp in emergencies. So we kind of decided to bail out at Boğaziçi (the map has Boğazıcı) and hitch or catch a dolmuş to Kalkan, with a view to walking to Patara the next day.

One leaf of the Lycian Trail sign has fallen off, so it’s not obvious which way to go, but the book said downhill. The trail is not well blazed with the standard red and white marks at this point and it’s hard to stay on if you look for them. But there are blue arrows that actually mark the right trail up to a point. The trail descends through switchbacks for a fair way, with lots of great views of Yediburun and the turquoise Mediterranean, until you get to the terraces around Üçkeçi Tepesi ‘Three goats Hill’. The book says to say to the right of the terraces, but we didn’t know what that meant and wandered around for some time trying to find the trail. We ended up just following a big road just above the terraces. With the benefit of hindsight, I think Üçkeçi Tepesi is just a little rise. The trail probably just skirts around between it and the terraces. When we got to the intersection, it was cetainly obvious where the trail was, going the other way.

As I recollect, not far past this, we had to scramble up a short steep washout and came to the tank mentioned in the book. This is not a good place to stop for water. It is better to follow the black hose about 20 or 30 metres further and get it directly from the spring that feeds the tank.

In April 2007, there was a lot of water. Many more springs are running than the book mentions. On the whole I tend to trust spring water, but wouldn’t drink cistern or well or creek water without treatment. On this particular trek, most of the time I was carrying tap water from the previous night’s hotel. But I did have a bit of spring water here and there with no ill effects. If there was anything to fear from those springs, I almost certainly would have got it.

From there, you follow the road to the turnoff for Gey. David Carter took the route via Boğaziçi and said he liked it. He mentions that he met someone who had taken the Gey route and didn’t like it, but couldn’t remember why they didn’t like it. When we got there, Joyce headed off for Bel, while Marleen and Nicole and I continued on into Boğaziçi. We met a woman who invited us for tea. The tea was actually quite refreshing, but it was a bad idea. We planned to hitch out to the main road at Eşen. While we had our tea, three utes went past. There was absolutely no other traffic on that road until we actually reached Eşen, exactly as I predicted on the basis of Murphy’s Law. So we ended up slogging about eight kilometres along a boring road in full sun. Just as we were coming up to Eşen, a car stopped for us and drove us straight past Eşen, where I was keen to stop and have a cold drink and possibly a meal. He dropped us at his house. We weren’t sure what to do, but it was a fair way back to Eşen, so we walked on and soon came to the main road. We didn’t get far before two guys picked us up. They were going to Kaş, but had to stop and meet someone in Kınık. Nicole was sure they were drug dealers. But they had a pansiyon in Kaş and gave us brochures. They asked us why we wanted to go to Kalkan. It was too expensive and we should come to Kaş. I was ready to take them at their word and go all the way to Kaş – it’s only about 25km further – and catch a dolmuş back in the morning. But Nicole and Marleen were determined to stop in Kalkan, so I decided to stick with them. We stopped for about five minutes at the turnoff for Kınık, but the guy they were execting never showed up, and they took us on to Kalkan and dropped us at the bazaar, as it was market day. They said they were going back to Kınık to see if their guy showed up.

As we were walking through the market, I got a call from Esin saying that Nur was frantic because she couldn’t get through to me the previous day when I was out of range. So I rang Nur and it turned out that she had rung the Dervish Lodge and Bayram and called out the Jandarma to look for me! Anyway, we stopped at a gözleme stall. The guy tried to overcharge us. A woman had come up while we were eating and asked how much they were and they told her YTL2, so I was pretty pissed off when the guy gave me YTL5 change from my 10. But he soon rectified his error. Then we went off looking for a place to stay. We stopped at the very first pansiyon we saw, the Moonlight, and I managed to bargain them down to a total of YTL50 for a double room and a single room, without breakfast, which suited me fine.

Nicole and Marleen are much fitter than me and ready to go out and do things after a day of walking. So after we’d all showered and rinsed out stuff, we went in search of a bank, as they were short of Turkish currency. There was an ATM nearby, so that was no problem. I had noticed in the Lonely Planet that there was supposed to be a lighthouse, so we went looking for that. It didn’t take long to find, just wandering through some side streets. But it was not very exciting. We stopped at a restaurant and they had beers and I had a rakı while a stray cat purred in my lap. Then we went down to the beach. Marleen had a swim and Nicole lay in the sun, while I retreated to the shade of an umbrella at the beachside bar.

While I was sitting there, two German guys came up with rucksacks. They were doing part of the Lycian Way backwards from Olympos. I said I found it hard enough following the directions going forwards, it must be a hell of a job going the other way, but they said the blazes were easier to follow going west.

When Marleen and Nicole were done on the beach, they came up and talked to the Germans for a little while, then we went off looking for dinner. We couldn’t agree on a place and decided to split up. Then a guy came up to me and tempted me with a free drink if I ate at his restaurant which was just there. I was actually planned to go to the Istanbul restaurant, which looked very good, but Marleen and Nicole had rejected on the grounds that the tables were in the middle of the street and the traffic and exhaust would disturb them. This place had a nice balcony. I ordered a vegetable omelette and some chips. The chef peeled a tomato in one piece and curled the skin into the shape of a rose. He substituted mushrooms for zucchini, but otherwise it was quite a nice omelette and the chips were good. I thought YTL15 was a bit steep, particularly as the free glass of rakı turned out to be less than half a glass.

After dinner, I found an internet cafe and checked my mail. Then I returned to the pansiyon and went to bed. The rooms are nice, the proprietors friendly, the water pressure is good, there’s a view of the harbour and a roof bar, but I can’t recommend the Moonlight, as the mattress was horrible.