'Myra to Finike'
Really, Zeytin to Finike
Early Cab up,
After reading the description for the Myra to Finike section in The Lycian Way guide book, we elected to skip the first part of the trek. We had learned our lesson about the non-essential parts of the hike. And the first section of this leg was a good candidate for skipping. We scheduled an early morning cab to take us to Beloren. First, this allowed us to skip approximately 4 km of busy traffic road walking as well as a very steep uphill section. I could be wrong about the value of walking that instead. But by car, seeing the same views, I don't know that the walking would have been worth it?
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| Smart again! Took a cab from Demre up to Zeytin |
Our ambitious taxi driver would not let us out early and insisted on driving as far as he felt comfortable. Turns out that was ok with us!
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| Coffee start, dubious Grant after cab drop off |
We were dropped off in a windy little saddle of the road. Cold, under-caffeinated and unsure about our next move, we sat down and made a cup of coffee.
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| Not Enough Coffee, Too cold, hard to motivate.... |
After coffee, we decided it was time to move on. Hard to motivate when you're cold and dubious but that is certainly the situation along the Lycian Way. On we went....
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| Lycian Way, Myra to Finike, Looking down to Alakilise (Church of Angel Gabriel) |
The Alakilise was certainly a highlight of the trail. A nice little stop for the imagination to run wild without interference as there was no one around.
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| Alakilise/Church of Angel Gabriel - 1500 yr old ruined church all to ourselves |
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| Alakilise, Nave Wall |
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| Church of Angel Gabriel |
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| Alakilise |
After looking around the church ruins we started the slog up the mountain. We were not prepared for the next section of trail.
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| Robin on the 'ankle-roller', straight-up trail from Alakilise |
My notes from the trail say, "No trail, just straight up thru scree"
Oh, I guess there were markers along the way. I guess there was a path. A real nice highway. If you're a goat!
Tough, vertical scrambling with not much of a trail and very rocky.
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| Grant with snow, Lycian Way ridge top near Gavurkarligi Tepesi Yayla |
We hoped to find some water near the ridge top and also a nice place to camp. These both proved elusive. We stumbled around for awhile looking for the well and never found a great spot. We decided to push on for a better spot.
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| More Snow and water well |
While the wells were there, we were dubious about the water quality after peering into the wells.
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| Myra-Finike route, looking back down into Demre and Andriake |
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| Robin looking for water, mountain loop, Myra to Finike |
It took us a long time to find some water we liked combined with a good place to camp. We ended up staying at one of the yayla wells. As it was early in the season the yayla was not yet populated with the summer animals and herders. long day over the mountain, but we found good water and great camping.
Route Map
http://www.mapmyhike.com/routes/view/195319700
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