We made a big realisation while we were holed up in Kas, in Turkey's best hotel (in our humble opinion). The Lycian Way is depicted as a month-long walk but we realised that this allowed no time for breaks or for actually seeing anything. We wanted to walk for about a month so we decided to start skipping some sections.
We got a lift to a small town and were dropped off outside the mosque. This gorgeous old lady was cleaning the mosque and was quite fascinated by us.
We didn't have to walk far to the ruins of Apollonia. It was a bit of a scramble climbing around it but it had a couple of cool Lycian tombs.
We had a lovely walk and stayed the night in a tiny village - ok it consisted of one property but it was still a village! The place was very cool but it also felt kinda weird. I'm not sure why. The house was 200 years old and looked gorgeous.
This was our bed. Very romantic but not necessarily very comfortable!
Everything was very worn. Check out the sheets. This patch even has a stitched fold for extra discomfort!
Dad - this photo's for you. This is the original door locking system. To open it you put your finger into a slot in the door jam at the top of the door and this lifts the chock of wood. The door swings open and another chock drops into place keeping it open. To close it, you lift the rear chock and the door locks closed again, being held shut by the first chock. It's very clever.
The next morning we explored the very atmospheric ruins right next to our place. The site is called Aperlae. Part of it has slipped into the sea after earthquakes. It was fantastic! I don't know how far above the waterline this old tomb was originally but it's now being lapped by water.
Morning sun poured in between the roofless walls.
Even though the almost abandoned town was largely in ruins, some parts were very photogenic.
We walked to the next town, Ucagiz, and stayed in a great pansion. The small town was built in and around a collection of old ruins. The Turks have little respect for the multitude of ruins scattering their country so towns just grow around them. We found so many weird examples of the old and the new mixing. We saw a ruined houses being used as a garage. The satellite dish below is set up in front of two different styles of Lycian tombs.
That's one hell of a car park backdrop.
"Give me a tomb among the gum trees...."
Our pansion had a great garden - in it grew mulberries, oranges, lemons, a type of local apricot and many others. You just reach out of the balcony window, pick fruit and eat it! I had a ball attacking the mulberry tree. It makes for messy fingers though!
We caught a ride on a boat to the next town. Mustafa, who we nicknamed Captain Fantastic, was at the helm. We were most of the way there when the engine conked out! It refused to start again so Mustafa just pulled out his phone and called someone. We sat bobbing on the water enjoying the beautiful scenery. Soon, help turned up and we were towed to land. We sure can't get the RACV to respond that quickly at home!
We explored the amazing ruins of Myra at Demre.
Unfortunately, neither the town nor the pansion we were booked into were very nice so we paid our pansion out, hopped on a bus and took off again.
Gotta go but I'll hopefully be back again soon!
Cheers,
Heather
Very interesting! Great photos!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Rosemary :)
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