Distance: 29.9km (347.8km), time spent: 8:55 (135:08).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 8m / 30m / 81m.
Weather: Nice, hot.
And so the day that I have dreaded the most has arrived, many has probably been most nervous about the three days long walk between Demre / Myra and Finike that I have just finished. For me, this is the day that I have looked the least forward to. Easiest illustrated by the height profile in the guidebook, which displays nothing else but a long and flat line, after there are some few small curves at the end. Thirty kilometres on a beach and alongside a road. The guidebook goes as far as suggest that you skip this stage and instead opt for a bus to Mavikent.
In Finike, oranges are clearly the main fruit here.
Not this fellow. The purist in me forces me to walk, it also forces me to return to Finike, as I need to begin from the town (and since the amount of money in my pockets are dwindling, visit a local cash machine). The backpack stays behind in the guesthouse since I can pick it up when I pass by the guesthouse later; I catch a dolmuş in to the town.
At the beginning of the Lycian beachway, you can see the beach you will be walking on as far as the eye sees.
The most motivating part of the whole day, is that you can see how far you will be walking on a beach right from the beginning, you can see the traces of your own sweat on the beach before you have walked. Luckily, the sand is hard to walk on in the beginning. The beach is shallow, which I felt quite clear yesterday when I went for a swim; the fishermen are standing far out in the water.
A fisherman in the water outside Finike.
After the first kilometres, the beach becomes so narrow and full of boulders that it forces me to go up to the road above. The road is empty, and not in use, construction works has made deep gashes across the road at given intervals. I have to balance around the edges of the gashes to get across. Empty bus shelters stands waiting for buses that never arrives.
Looking back towards Finike, fishermen on the beach. Above Finike you can see the last part of the mountain you get down from where the trail comes from Demre / Myra.
The waymarking are almost totally absent alongside the whole beach. Though that does not yield any problems as long as the trail goes on the beach, but when it goes inland to cross the rivers that runs down in the ocean, they are missed at times. And since the waymarks barely exists, you usually do not know when then trail leaves the beach and you suddenly stands face to face with one of the rivers. For the most part, it goes fine, but at one place, I could not see any red and white blazes and went too early down to the beach again (this after a longer walk on a road). It is easier to navigate at the beach, but the reward is a cumbersome walk in loose and heavy sand.
Where it was too difficult to move easily on the boulders next to the sea, the trail goes on this road, with regular gashes going across it.
I eat lunch at a small café nearby a huge and fenced in hotel complex. Whether the owner of the café has some fun on the behalf of the hikers or not, I cannot tell, but he did send me on the wrong way when I left. Instead of walking where I thought the trail went (as it also did), he sent me on my way around the hotel on the beach. With the result that I had to be escorted further by the guards at the area. The reason? I was moving straight towards the female part of the beach, though it has a fence going around it.
A bench at the beach that has seen its better days.
The walk on the Lycian beachway was not as bad as I first assumed, but then again, I was prepared for that this would not be the most exciting part of my walk either. Still, it is hard to come around the fact that it became a quite monotonous and boring walk eventually, constant in the sun, sweating and thirsty. At Mavikent, I am at the end of the beachway and before I leave it, I have to take a bath, so off with the clothes and into the sea for a refreshing swim. Fortunately, the restaurant nearby has a small shower on the beach that I can borrow.
Toilets that has seen their better days. It was not tempting to use these, probably not possible as well. In the background are the mountains I wished I were walking in.
After Mavikent and a bunch of snarling dogs, which fortunately kept themselves at bay, I can finally shake the sand off my shoes and continue further on the last part to Karaöz. This section follows the tarmac road along the coast, but after the beach, I am only happy for some change. Here, the flat scenery around me is changing to hillsides leading up towards the mountains. The view has in other words improved. Cape Gelidonya is now much closer.
On the road to Karaöz after the long walk on the beach.
The road passes by several bays with small beaches between the hills, clearly popular places for excursions. I am tired when I arrive at Karaöz. Yesterday I decided that I would only go here today, though I back home thought that the lighthouse at Gelidonya would be a good endpoint for this stage. Karaöz is a typical holiday resort of the quiet kind, some holiday homes, a restaurant, a shop and some guesthouses, no hotels. Leisurely. I get a room at the Gelidonya Pansiyon (then, I at least came to a place with Gelidonya in its name if not anything else).
The small private museum in Gelidonya Pansiyon.
This is also a guesthouse that I can recommend, I get a nice and clean room, outside the room there is a balcony with a nice view straight at the sunset that arrives later. In the room next to me, there are a German mother and son on a vacation in Turkey. The dinner could almost be accounted for a dinner party, friends of the owners are visiting and on the barbeque are chicken, lamb, goat and bell peppers. Roasted potato wedges and salad are served in addition to the grilled meat. This makes for a pleasant evening. Inside the guesthouse, there is a nice little private museum.
Dinner party at the guesthouse.
<- FinikeGelidonya ->
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