Farewell Kalkan

 

We had a planning day and revisited the next four days on the Likya Yolu trail that would take us to Kas, our intended jumping off point to the Greek islands. 

The next four days on the trail looked to be  pretty much the same as the ground we had covered. There would be distant sea views from the cliff tops,  open ground with no shade,  sparse mountain villages and with no parts of the trail taking us close to the actual sea shore. Taking all this into account, and the next four days weather forecast of temps in the late 20's°C , the trip health & safety officer made a call to ditch the trail and instead find our way  along the coast roads by public bus where possible. 

After our planning meeting we wandered along the little lanes of the old town. Of course lunch was needed and we had a superb lunch of grilled octopus, local caught sea bass, grilled calamari and salad.

You can see the why it's called the turquoise coast, the water is crystal clear.

Farewell Kalkan, a very chilled out little seaside village. We were lucky to have stayed pre season and enjoyed the quiet, laid back vibe. 

Kalkan

30 March 2024

We said goodbye to the little sanctuary of Likya Camping in Alinca mountain village. Never had a shower and bed felt so good after that hazardous hike up the mountain side. 

We woke to the sound of bells as a herd of goats wandered past the property making the rock hopping look so easy. Clearly we needed four legs yesterday to be as agile across the rock faces. The goats were swiftly followed by cows, so rural and quiet.

We faced another 9k uphill track to the next village and there would be no water supplies or services so we decided to take the bus to the next big town and have a rest day. Easier said than done🙂. Alinca was very remote with no buses and a taxi would have to come from very far away. So we did a deal with the brother of the lady who was doing all the cooking. He would drive us to where the minibus/dolmus would pass by. Fantastic! This would cost 250TL or about NZ$14, bargain! Off we set in a clapped out old car, a Tofas - brand unique to Turkey. I think they used this car to take goats to market but we weren't fussed, just grateful and it was a real experience going down these windy mountain roads, no seatbelts😬. We got dropped off on the side of a highway, surrounded by farmland and one small petrol station. With sign language we figured we needed to wait on the side of the highway for the dolmus. We asked at the gas station just to be doubly sure and were told no dolmus!  Oh oh! Then, I kid you not,  an old farmer on a tractor with a big log on the back stopped us and after a bit of haggling (he started at a billion TL, maybe we misunderstood) we agreed a a price of 600TL for him to take us to Kalkan. It was that or sticking our thumbs out. Off we went down a dusty road to his farm house and he got his car out and we were off. He played enthusiastic Turkish crooner music very loud. I was sitting behind him and every time he spat out the window I leant away just in case the wind was blowing the wrong way. All was well until we hit a blockade on the motorway....it was election day and the cars had all come to a complete stop, drivers were out of their cars, horns were honking, political banners were flying....all this on the main highway and all macho looking blokes I might add. Oh dear. Our farmer turned the car around and we took the back roads to an alternate small town of Kinik.

We hit the same thing, cars, horns, traffic stopped. The farmer could see this being a long day and not worth his time so he cut his losses, dropped us at a dolmus stop and asked for 300TL and scarpered. Don't blame him really, it was chaotic.  

All's well that ends well, we waited about 30 mins, the crazy macho dudes hanging out their car windows honking their horns had moved on and we trundled down the back roads to Kalkan.

 

Quite different from our isolated mountain village. Kalkan feels like a Greek island village. It's as pretty  as a picture. It was settled 200 years ago by people of both Greek and Turkish origin  and was known as Kalamaki. It served as  a trading port and the old harbour still looks to   be busy-ish, albeit with tourist charters.

Following WW1 there was a population exchange and the Greeks left for Athens naming their new village there Kalamaki. As the roads  in Turkey improved,  the port traffic died and it wasn't until a wealthy English yachtie discovered Kalkan in the 1960's and  from then on  tourism has saved the day.

It's pre season here so many places are getting geared up for the tourist influx in May.  We stumbled upon Guy Pansiyon and decided it would do, simple, on the edge of the old town and reasonably quiet. Kalkan in general is  quiet and relaxed. The weather is really heating up here now. We had a swim and found a place for a nice lunch after our hard yakka the last few days. 

    

When the season is in full swing it must be all go here, there's some fancy - schmancy  places to hang out.

We had a bit of washing to do and had to hang it out over the side of our hotel, if you dropped it, it was gone-burger onto the terracotta roof below. Quite a day of a different  kind of adventure.

 

Alinca - what a day!

What a day! One we'll remember forever for a range of reasons 😁😬. We set off from Kabak heading for another mountain village called Alinca. The little market in Kabak wasn't open so we had to make the steep  trek down to Kabak beach to see if a shop was open as we needed water for the day.

Kabak beach was lovely but a hive of construction - so many villas being built. This gorgeous beach will be very different next season.

After getting nervous about no water for sale we finally found some and set off for what we thought would be a hard but beautiful trek around the coast up to the village of Alinca.

This was no walk for the faint hearted, it was brutal. The track was narrow and hugging the side of sheer rock faces and and incredibly steep gradient .

We were so far into the track when we came across a sheer rock wall and the little track markers were painted on the rock face with red arrows indicating to go up. Yikes! We had big backpacks and front packs....this looked tricky. It was too dangerous to turn back as going down how we had come up would have been dire. So up we went with a lot of courage summoning. 

The track had small parts where it felt OK, still super narrow and scary but  you couldn't get comfortable as you kept going up and up and up.

Spot me amongst the rock face, little black dot almost!

There were incredible views in amongst the hard yakka and careful foot placement, lots of loose scree and one wrong foot....we tried not to think about it. Our water was running low and it was hot, full sunshine and steep. We started rationing our water. We had to keep going, one foot carefully in front of the other.

We finally made it to Alinca. Took 6 hours of sweat and positive affirmations 😁. Wouldn't you know it once we got to the point the track joined a road to the village there was a new build construction and we had to go up the steepest loose shingle driveway in the world, just to finish us off 😁.

We found a little roof top restaurant just as we were walking into the village, Likya Camping & Restaurant . Our packs were off lickety split and we had freshed squeezed OJ and omelette. The best food in the world after walking an insane track.  They had rooms to rent so that worked for us, we weren't walking another step if we could help it.

The shower felt therapeutic on our muscles and tired bones, got our sweaty  hiking clothes washed and drying in the sun. Tomorrow our next stop was to be  a village on the crest of the mountain range in the photo above. I think we'll take a dolmus if possible and have a lay day. 

The sunset from our pansiyon is beautiful. We had a beer and dinner on the terrace just soaking up the serenity. As the sun dropped into the sea we headed for bed. Over and out and we'll see how the muscles feel tomorrow.

Kabak

We woke to a glorious morning with the early sun lighting up the sheer rock faces of Butterfly Valley.

Our humble pensiyon, Guy Pansiyon,  included  breakfast so we sat on the terrace enjoying the view and had a  healthy brekky to set us up for a day of hillside trekking.

We had to keep our eyes peeled for the little red and white trail markers. They are often on rocks or trees and very easy to miss. We missed one turn and luckily it's was only 5mins down the track before we realised so we had an extra 5 min hill climb to get back on the trail.

We really were in a goat track today, wandering goats with bells on! 

The  track was all loosely turned over in places which seemed strange until the penny dropped.....the goats and wild boar have been rooting up the wild Iris bulbs that are abundant along the trail

We had been slogging up hill on rough tracks and then our track popped out on to a forest road and there was a wee lean-to selling fresh squeezed juice, wonderful!

This couple drive up the forest road and have a rustic little stall where the sell fresh juice to the hikers. Hubby dropped the lovely lady off and then disappeared in a clapped out old banger leaving her to do the juice stall, she had no English and I had no Turkish but we had a lovely conversation. Very special. 

What a spot, we sat next to a coral with goats and chooks overlooking the most wonderful Mediterranean views. I bet if you came back here in a few years it will be a building site.

There is so much construction all along this coast. Huge villas, big compounds, in-ground pools on multi level terraced properties...

Just when your spirits are flagging a little, natures gives you a little 'pick me up'. 

We came across a turtle enjoying the spring flowers, so sweet. 

We had thought today would be a bit easier but it was quite tough in places, you really had to take it slowly and carefully. 

We made it to Kabak. A small village with amazing sea views, check out our terrace view! Third night in a row we are the only people staying in the place. A lot of the younger ones on the trail are wild camping but our camping days are over, tents add pack weight!

To be sure we don't fade away, we had a good dinner and an early night as tomorrow is a big day . 

We had a friend at dinner. His pleading gig was extra effective as he also had a limp, of course we were weak and snuck him a treat. 

Lycian Way, Likya Yolu

 We were up early in order to have a good deal of our uphill walking in the shade before the sun became too fierce. Farewell to the Gold Lion Hotel, we were the only guests in a huge hotel and it felt a big odd. We found a lovely little patisserie open and they served great coffee with a slice of hot apple cake straight out of the oven, yum! We had to carry a lot of water today as there were no water fountains for 10ks and the track was pretty much old goat herding trails so no fancy cafes or shops to be found.

It felt good to have our packs on again and be setting out for the day. Our packs are pretty light but with the extra 3 litres of water each, they felt a tad heavier. 

It was  uphill all the way on really tough ground,   you had to really watch your footing. 

The views as we gained elevation were spectacular. We had to keep an eye on the rocks for little red and white track markers to be sure we didn't veer off into the wrong goat track.

As we came around to the corner of a cliff face we met a young man that had set up a spot selling freshly squeezed orange and pomegranate juice. Perfect timing as we were flagging and totally impressed at the entrepreneurial skills of this guy. He had to lug all the juice uphill in coolers and hope for some customers. 

The juice was home made and half frozen, it was divine. 

A bit further on this young lady had set up a stall making fresh gozleme/ spinach and cheese pancakes. This was in the middle of nowhere. 

We walked underneath the site of a huge earthquake that hit the region in 1957 and you could see how great swathes of hillside had just slid down the valley with boulders the size of apartment blocks.

It was good to see the sign for Faralya, our end point for the day. We started a brutal descent that took us through small farm holdings back yards and pasture land. Every so often we passed a new build that had been abandoned, massive structures left half finished and rusting in places. 

We crossed paths  with stock roaming free and you could hear  cow bells high up in  the hills. There were wild flowers everywhere, so pretty.

We saw 11 hikers today. 2 Aussies, 2 from the Netherlands, 2 from Switzerland, 1 Turkish, 1 Spanish, 2 that didn't speak so not sure of their home country and 1 other kiwi. 

 Faralya, we made it! Hard going in places.  

We're staying in a very humble village pansiyon with mamma making us dinner and breakfast. A good day was had by all.