Turkey Lycian Way - 5 days of meandering

 

Tahtali Dagi as viewed from Beycik Village

Lycian Way or Trail, as it is commonly referred to, is Turkey’s longest distance hiking trail of about 540km, beginning at Fethiye and snaking all the way into Antalya. It is divided into several stages, where you can join in or leave at several points if you don’t have the time or inclination to do the trail in its entirety. If you are in good shape, I believe the entire length can be done in 3 to 4 weeks. Most of the trail goes along the coastline and forests. As my main reason to go on this trail was to hike to the summit of the highest peak Tahtali Dagi or Mt Olympos (2365m), I opted to do the stage from Beycik to Goynuk.

 

Day 1 – I took the morning bus from Antalya main bus station to Kumluca, and got off at the highway near Ulupinar (in front of Kayalar café) and paid 55 TLR. Started off at around 10am. From here on till reaching Beycik mosque, covering a distance of around 9km in 3 hrs, it’s mostly a dry dirt road, with only one place for water. I was highly parched by the time I reached the mosque. Found a group of men playing chess under a massive tree. Here I drank to my fill and then bought some provisions from the shop and also ate some delicious cheese filled Turkish bread that an old lady made right in front of me. Then I continued on the trail to Ramon and Tommy café, where I filled up my 5 ltr can and my other bottle as I knew there wouldn’t be any water beyond this point. From here the trail climbs steeply through forests and finally reached a flat camping ground just below Tahtali Dagi, at around 1800m and camped for the night. In all, from the start point I had covered 16km in about 6hrs and climbed 1500m.

 

Camp below Tahtali Dagi

Day 2 – The Lycian way doesn’t really go through the summit of Tahtali Dagi and most of the hikers do not hike up there, but then it was my main purpose. As I wanted to watch the sunrise from the summit, I started off at around 4.40am in darkness. The zig zagging trail is easy to follow. In about 1hr and 15min I reached the top, it was rather cold and windy. The top has a huge restaurant building and many trappings of material attractions. I watched the sunrise and the surrounding mountains and at the sea, the views were impressive. Getting back to my tent, had a small breakfast and then hiked over the next three hours and camped next to a beautiful stream just before reaching the village of Yayla Kuzdere. En route at a place met a group of kids picking wild berries and making chai in their portable samovar. The day was hot and I had a cold but refreshing bath in the stream pool and washed my clothes too. In the evening a passing farmer gifted me some fresh fruits and a gigantic cucumber. Total distance covered 13km.

 

Dawn from Tahtali Dagi summit

Day 3 – Starting on an easy trail, over roads and off roads, I reached Gedelme in about 2 hrs and found Ay Market, the only decent grocery store in my entire hiking trip. Bought some cheese, bread, fruits, eggs and made an early brunch. After that the trail goes through very dry forests, without any water, and soon I was back to sweating profusely and almost collapsing in the heat. Crossing Ovacik, the trail goes down, and I camped near a water source in the forest covering around 14km for the day.

 

Day 4 – Started early at around 7.30am following the muddy off-road trail. All the streams were dry and in an hour reached the deserted village of Goynuk Yaylasi. Near the mosque there was a tap with a trickle. Then leaving the dirt road the trail goes down and crosses the Goynuk Canyon, where I took a brief respite, made tea and washed myself. Surprisingly, at this point, there were several signs cautioning about scorpion, but I didn’t see any. From this point onwards, the canyon remained a constant companion, sometimes to the right and at times to the left. Crossed Doga camping with loud blaring music and an old guy in a broken pick up who eyeballed me with a dazed look. I silently crossed over and continued. After this point the trail goes down really steep, losing altitude rapidly through forest. Then it plunges through the canyon gorge in a tumbling manner over big boulders and several scrambling. At one point I suddenly came right face to face with a huge wild boar and a tiny cub. They were barely 5 meters away. I had nowhere to go as the trail was really narrow with a deep drop to my right and high cliff to the left. I took a step towards the drop and stood absolutely still. The boar and baby advanced as if they hadn’t noticed anything, transfixed to the ground. They passed almost touching my legs. I stayed still till they disappeared behind a bend. Thereafter I picked up pace. I had no desire to encounter the daddy boar. At one place there was a wooden ladder across the stream. And the trail continues steeply down ahead. By now it was afternoon and really hot and humid. I decided to rest by a waterfall pool and take some much needed cooling down swim. After the swim I rested beneath a tree till 6.30pm when the sun had sunk much lower. From here the trail first climbs up several hundred meters through thick forest till a col at the top. As I started descending on the other side, the dusk deepened and soon I had to use my headlamp. It was quite surreal to hike through darkness and clouds. The trail was rocky, rough and curvy. I reached the Goynuk Canyon camping in complete darkness around 10pm. Saw a fire in the darkness and on approaching found a group of two young couples cooking. They immediately offered me some great hot food. After that I camped next to the river.

 

Day 5 – The morning dawned warm and sunny, and in less than an hour I reached the Goynuk bus station and took a mini bus back to Antalya bus station. Thus concluding my 5 days sojourn.

 

Note – the most picturesque part of the hike for me was on Day 4 beyond Doga camping. The trail is well marked with red and white horizontal line and easy to find, except at few places. Maps.me did wonderful offline route finding job. In my opinion, and as well as with the locals, this trail should be done either in spring, April/May or in autumn months of September / October / November.