Carian trail in quarantine

Notes on a hike along the Carian Trail (Türkiye) in January 2021. Already a traditional winter hike in spring. Chamber group, great weather and breathtaking sunsets. This time against the backdrop of a pandemic and other global madness. Thank God in the mountains you forget about all this.

In Covid times, any travel abroad is a lottery and a risk. But everything is ok. We are already in Turkey! They crossed the border without any problems - they looked at the PCR tests there rather formally, no one bothered to dig deeper. Transport runs normally, restaurants are open only for takeaway, shops are open until 20:00.

Well, the most important thing is that it smells like spring here, +18 degrees.

It actually rained all night. And in the morning it still rained a little. But then all the precipitation simply must end immediately, because we are starting a hike.

Be envious, dear ones. While we were driving from the hotel to the start of the route, the rain stopped and all day we had a magical +18 and spring sun. I suggest that everyone who did not go on this hike due to fears of the winter climate should urgently bite their elbows, or whatever they are doing, out of envy. In fact, even if it gets worse further, in my opinion, just one such day is worth all the effort and expense.

P.S. Let me remind you that this is our winter hike along the Carian Trail in Turkey.

Miracles happen. 5 years ago I walked along the Carian Trail for the first time and it was very difficult - you walk on your own, move quickly, walk 12 hours every day and still don’t have time, you still “cut” your plans. And now we have a “children’s” group, a short winter day, uncertain weather and lazy lunches of one and a half to two hours. And despite this, we manage to do everything, we cover more every day and consistently exceed our plans...

We set up tents on the seashore and spent half the evening watching the lights float past in the darkness. They probably did not move on their own, but together with boats invisible to the eye, but this has not been proven by science.

Therefore, we were almost diving into a trance when suddenly one of the lights turned into a pillar of light. It was on the next boat that they turned on the spotlight and started combing our shore!

This is where the magic begins. Outwardly, nothing changed - we sat around the burner with tea, and didn’t stir. But a strange game of hide and seek began in my mind. It’s as if we were in a movie about escaped prisoners, and there are our pursuers on a boat and if they catch us... It’s better not to think about it))

P.S. It's still the Carian Trail, Türkiye, January!

Everyone knows about the taste of childhood, many have heard about the taste of victory, now I will tell you about the taste of the Motherland. It’s such a strange thing when you walk with a backpack along the Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea, and not in some Marmaris, but as they say in the middle of nowhere and, moreover, in January. You are walking and accidentally (honestly!) look into a lonely trash can... Suddenly a warm wave of recognition covers your heart. Ukrainians were here recently! They read the Ukrainian newspaper and ate domestic sublimates. Moreover, they brought their garbage to this bin! God, how nice it is.

There are several sections on the Carian trail where you deal with rocks. This is not extreme yet, but it is already a reason to be careful. Usually on these sections I’m so busy (passing backpacks, helping people) that I don’t have time to take a photo of anything, and then when tourists ask about the difficulty of the route, I have to scare them verbally, without visual propaganda or special means. But this time the situation is somewhat better - I did take a few photographs.

I usually call such places the culmination of a hike - some landmark, the highest peak, or some special landscape. In the Carian (not to be confused with the Lycian) this is perhaps Knidos - the remains of an ancient city on the very edge of the Datca Peninsula. This time we had a lot of time and we managed to go to the lighthouse and the amphitheater and relax on a bench. And while we were sitting and having lunch, talking tourists suddenly fell on us. They heard a familiar speech and initiated communication - they talked about quarantine in Istanbul, news from home, and Instagram fashion for these particular landscapes. And I listened, drank coffee and thought - was one week on the hike really enough for me to become so wild that I was too lazy to say a word? But no - the next day everything was fixed. Stay tuned for the sequel!

What upsets me about winter hiking is the inability to take a photo of my tent (it’s awesome, what about yours?). In the morning you get up and start getting ready before dawn, and in the evening, even if the sun has not set yet, you simply don’t have time to play. Therefore, when we had the opportunity to dry the awnings during lunch among the Carian Trail, I did not waste time. Have you already guessed what I did? No, I didn't pack my tent for filming. I took off my shoes and climbed knee-deep into the sea. After all, I love my own legs even more than a tent :)

There comes a point on every hike when tourists slow down, not out of fatigue, but out of boredom. The views are no longer so distracting from the weight of the backpack, and hunger is not yet motivating enough to rush to the camp. This is when I use the guide's secret weapon - games. There are several such intellectual entertainments that can be practiced while driving along the route - “yes” or “no”, bullshit, three-liter jar. And in fact, I'm constantly looking for something new. Some kind of game suitable specifically for movement. Just don't say "crocodile", I already tried))

At the beginning of the hike, we left Marmaris in an excellent condition, quite suitable for life. I remember exactly, I even still have the photos. People were walking along the embankment, there were cars on the roads. And imagine what a shock it was to return to a completely deserted city. Remember there were several films with such a plot - the hero wakes up, and humanity has disappeared?

So we trudged along the sea in a daze until a policeman emerged from out of nowhere (that’s who will survive a nuclear war), and we were stunned by the news - today is a day off, so the whole of Turkey is sitting at home in “weekend quarantine”! So I laughed... But my uncle in uniform did not. He made a stern gesture and suggested that we immediately leave the beach area so as not to tempt the respectable residents of Baghdad... or Marmaris. And of course, all the characters in this drama were wearing masks, because when I felt the approach of the cops with my back, I lifted the mask from my chin with the power of my thoughts and became at least a little safer for society.

During the entire hike along the Carian trail, we met only one tourist with a backpack and a tent. It was so unexpected (right in the middle of the game of the already mentioned three-liter jar) that I unfortunately did not think to take a photo of this unique representative of Turkish youth (for some reason it seemed to me that he was local). And this would probably be a reason to be proud of the popularity of active recreation among Ukrainian youth, if not for the intimate size of our group this year. Quarantine, the need to do tests twice, lack of money and poor awareness prevented our compatriots from traveling and making their dreams come true. But not for us, because you don’t know yet, but we’re already on our way again))

Kirill Yasko, January 10, 2021