This report is about the tour: Lycian way
Vladimir is a participant in the trek along the East Lycian Way in Turkey. He talks about how he decided to take his 9-year-old son to the mountains with him and what came of it
Why did you decide to take your son hiking the Lycian Way?
This is not his first trip. He already had some experience, he started and got involved gradually. These were two-three-day hikes, the first experience of sleeping in a tent, then there was the experience of multi-day hikes and rafting. And the Lycian Way became the next step in this development.
This time he was already calmly carrying his backpack weighing about 5 kg. He carried it up and down. It may not always be as quickly and efficiently as we would like... However, if before he periodically wanted to part with him, this time he honestly took him the entire distance.
Did you like the Lycian Way?
I would like to add two small comments. The first is about the organization. With Kirill, as always, everything was good, balanced and thought out both before and during the trip. This is my third trip with OutdoorUkraine and, as always, I have purely positive impressions. And the second point is purely along the Lycian Way. If we compare tours from the “hiking by the warm sea” category, namely hiking in Turkey, Crimea and Cyprus, then it seems to me that Türkiye is definitely the most interesting of these three. Compared to Crimea, the mountains here are more similar to mountains - they are higher and forested. They leave a more vivid impression than the Crimean mountains. And Cyprus, with all due respect, is flatter and less bright than Türkiye. The only thing I would recommend to everyone is to go to Turkey at a time when it is already quite warm and the sea has already warmed up, but not yet hot. Because walking the same distance in the heat would be much more difficult. And the end of April and the May holidays are ideal in this regard.
Was the backpack heavy? You were responsible for both yourself and your son, right?
I can’t say that the weight went off scale, because I had some experience of minimizing it. I carried my clothes, my son’s clothes, two sleeping bags and a tent. If you take a hike like the Lycian Way, where the expected temperature difference will not be very large and you don’t need to take really warm clothes, then in general the backpack does not turn out to be extremely heavy, even if you are carrying things for a child. Theoretically, you should gradually transfer some of the child’s clothes into his backpack, but I have not yet risked doing this. Let Kirill talk about his experience of walking with his 11-year-old son - how much he can load in his backpack. And in our 9 years we are still limited to the minimum.
Will you continue?
Yes, sure. Now Sergei is 9, and he had his first multi-day hike at 7. Then he went when he was 8, and now. So he already had some experience. And as far as I can see, he enjoys going on hikes again and again. I hope this continues to be the case.
Interviewed by: Vladimir Voitov and Kirill Yasko