This report is about the tour: Lycian way
Review of the hike Lycian Way May 10-20, 2011
Now I remember all this - and it becomes funny and doubtful whether I would dare to go all this way again. It was funny to walk a day in the rain, through a swamp, and then wash and wash off in the cold water, and an equally cold night lay ahead... Although, I’ll tell you a secret, a very wise man came up with the idea of combining two sleeping bags into one! Even at +4 it is possible and even necessary to sleep in non-winter sleeping bags!
There are so many impressions, but so few words... What I took away most valuable from this adventure for myself is that I know how to spend a vacation and even relax! Yes, yes! This is a vacation that inspires and gives energy for a long time... until the next trip.
The Lycian Trail has been my dream since the moment I saw this route on the OutdoorUkraine.com website. But at that time the vacation was already exhausted, and everything has its time. And so, on the last day of winter, I took the first step towards my dream - I applied for the route, and the next day the plane tickets were already purchased... And a long period of waiting, preparing, and making the necessary purchases began...
And day “X” has come. To say that I love to fly is an understatement. This was one of the factors thanks to which I decided to conquer the Taurus Mountains. Therefore, the beginning pleased me - an easy takeoff and soft landing, a circle over the Mediterranean Sea, and we were already in Antalya...
Slightly chaotic movements from one “cash desk” where they sell visas, to another, where the queue is shorter, doubts about where to go first - to exchange money or for your own needs... Well, here the group is assembled. Everyone takes a closer look, looks around, decides where to go: to the greenhouses, to Cappadocia, to lie like a dead weight by the sea... And the choice is made - we’re going to look at the cave cities.
Some time ago I stopped being surprised by the coincidences that life presents to us, knowing that coincidences do not exist. So, in my archive I have a wonderful article with photographic materials from Weburbanist about hotel houses in rock caves, where, as everyone has already guessed, the story about Cappadocia is meager, honestly, in two or three words, but the photographs captivated me. And I never even dreamed of being there! Like many of my companions, apparently, too. But we still had to live to see Cappadocia...
The first day is the most difficult day. The night with virtually no sleep, the flight, the climate change, and, as our instructor Sasha said, the route of the first days is the most difficult. But we, as if by inertia, and also because the unknown beckons us and does not scare us, moved our legs, admiring the beauty around us, and in the summer, which had not yet begun in our homeland... Like all compatriots, I was surprised by the Turkish roads, the light in the tunnel (not at the end!!!), the wonderful landscapes from the window of the minibus that brought us to the start.
Well, what made me smile was the inscription in Russian “Delicious kebab to the right”, in general, our washi were already everywhere, not only in all-inclusive ones. But, thank God, their number was minimal, which made me especially happy. Everyone will dare to bask on sun loungers, but not everyone will dare to walk along paths where there are many creatures unfamiliar to us. And the realization “I am a hero” warms the soul in a special way.
And then we started losing our “heroes.” First, Andrey left the route due to illness - and it became unpleasant. Olya remembered the 10 little Indians. And when we also left Vadim for Takhtali, I felt somehow uneasy, I thought that I should have been more careful with my words...
Although when there was a clack in our sneakers and unless our ears were dirty, all this was accompanied by a terrible runny nose and cough, it was a positive attitude that saved us. Because it seemed that the warmth could no longer be expected. Moreover, when Sasha assured us that there was almost no rain here, that after 20 minutes all traces of it were gone, and we took out our raincoats already on the second or third day, the future looked vague...
Now I remember all this - and it becomes funny and doubtful whether I would dare to go all this way again. It was funny to walk a day in the rain, through a swamp, and then wash and wash off in the cold water, and an equally cold night lay ahead... Although, I’ll tell you a secret, a very wise man came up with the idea of combining two sleeping bags into one! Even at +4 it is possible and even necessary to sleep in non-winter sleeping bags!
Yes, there are so many such memories - funny, like with a goose, and not so much - with a scorpion; one “Alenka” for ten, 10 spoons in one bucket of yogurt, acrobatic tricks on a branch and on the sand; indescribably picturesque bays (I didn’t even know such colors existed in nature!), swimming in cold mountain streams, to which you need to wade, walking along a suspicious bottom, next to suspicious creatures; oranges, grapefruits and medlars from the trees, driving backwards along the slopes of Takhtali, strange Turks who take us for money bags (up to our ears in mud) and flatterers (according to all the rules of trading), when, having successfully pronounced “merhaba”, you can hear “I’ve thought you spoke Turkish” - a balm for the soul of an amateur polyglot.
And Antalya... So different - European in comparison with Kiev and incomprehensible in an oriental way (how can you understand when in a hotel rooms that are completely different in comfort and renovation are rented out at the same price?!?), with its Cats peeing at the packages of peaceful Ukrainian tourists, chewing their modest kebap and refusing to share their meat with street favorites...
There are so many impressions, but so few words... What I took away most valuable from this adventure for myself is that I know how to spend a vacation and even relax! Yes, yes! This is a vacation that inspires and gives energy for a long time... until the next trip.
Daria Murmuenko, Kyiv