Lycian Way Day 15, Kas - Cab to Bogazcik - hike to Ucagiz, March 23, 2013

Leaving Kas in a cab,
Bogazcik to Ucagiz

Okay, here's the thing.  This was either the best day of the trip or the worst day.  No, wait. Not Either.  Both.

First, we had already done some day hiking the day before along the next section between Kas and Bogazcik.  We decided that we should take another shortcut and take a public transport option so as not to waste time so we caught a taxi early in the morning to Bogazcik. Probably the Kas to Bogazcik section was great but we skipped it nonetheless!
The next section between Bogazcik and Ucagiz was really quite nice, with good trail and lots of goats and great scenery.  We even brought a couple cold Efes for the morning snack so life was great!

Lycian Way; Look!  A goat!

We dropped down to Aperlae and marveled at the tombs and scenery - great stuff!

Grant looking down towards Aperlae

We could have stopped very early and had a great tent site among tombs, goats and cows.  We would have been close to other travelers with great stories I'm sure, as well as proximity to water, maybe even a hot meal cooked by someone else and possibly cold beer too?
No, onward we strode.  It was early, after all!

East end of Aperlae Isthmus; NO water, NO beer, NO food, NO boat trips to Ucagiz

At the East end of the Isthmus the guide book hinted at water, beer, a boat maybe?
Nothing.  Nada.  Abandoned.
Meh...not a problem....
But we decided we didn't need any more stinkin' Lycian Way markers!  We could clearly tell by geography where we were going.  Even without the markers, surely this other goat path that looked exactly the same as the correct Lycian Way path would eventually make it to Ucagiz?  Or at the very least short-cut back to the main trail?  Why were we wasting our time on this wandering marked trail when we could just walk straight to our destination on any old trail around?

Enroute to Ucagiz; we were lost for 2 hours....

Leaving the red and white long behind, our goat path quickly disappeared into scrub.  'A little further' we told ourselves. We stopped and looked around and convinced ourselves to keep going. Two or three times.
Finally, we belly crawled into a nice comfortable clearing. Comfortable IF you were a goat about to give birth. AND you really didn't want any predators to be able to get to you. AND you wanted to stay there for three of four days. ALONE.  It was perfect. 
Only we were out of drinking water now.  And we didn't want to stay there overnight.  And we weren't goats.  And now that we were there, we couldn't see a way out.  Seriously.  Could not see how we came in.  Or how to get back out.  The way we came or any other way either.  Lost.  Lost in a nice little clearing.  Lost with a beautiful view of the Med.  Right there. Gorgeous.  Could almost see our destination from here too.  Oh, we knew where we were.  And we knew where we wanted to go.  But we could not get there.  Not from here.  From here it appeared we couldn't go anywhere.  But it seemed so close!
We also couldn't go back.  Well, obviously we had to go back.  But we couldn't get there from here.  Couldn't see where it was.  Well, we could actually see that.  Stand on this rock and see clear as day where we had come from.  Right there.  Easy.  Whoops.  Cannot see a path back to there.  Can't even see a path one foot back to where we came in from!  Wow.

So there we were.  Thirsty.  Time marching on through the afternoon.  Scrambling through the thorn brush.  Lost.  Robin blowing the whistle.  Calling for help.  Hoping for some goat herder to come show us the way.  Grant tripped and fell on a bush and punctured his sleeping pad multiple times - no more air for that sucker!  Stumbling and thrashing through thick thorn-studded scrub brush.  Over rocks.  Under branches.  Step up onto a high rock and look around to get our bearings.  Then head down to thrash about some more.

Slowly, slowly we backtracked.  Up. Down.  On our knees through brush.  Up again.  How easy it is to be a goat; how frustrating to not be.

Two hours.  Two hours and finally back on the trail!   A real mixed blessing to be happy to see those devilish red and white marks again.  Happy we were.
Now, backtrack to a known happy camp with water and freindly people, or trudge onward to Ucagiz?  We're tired, thirst, grumpy, exhausted and have been lost for two hours.
Let's just get this leg over with!  Onward!

Sweet Sweet Ucagiz

Not only was Ucagiz a beautiful wonderful place, it was also maybe our favorite spot on the entire trek!  Exhaustion and perseverance made it the best place we'd ever seen!  And of course we just stumbled into town as we do and found this wonderful pansiyon (Kekova) and host and cold beer and of course once again everything was right with the world! 

Beer reward, Kekova Pansiyon, Ucagiz.  The best room of the entire route?

A wonderful night in with cold beer and wonderful food and a great room.  So happy we finally made it to Ucagiz!

We were panicked Lost
http://www.mapmyhike.com/routes/view/195317982