Plod's Lycian Log: Day 20: Belos to Finike

Monday 21st April, 2014

"Taksi, Belos?" I said inquiringly to the taxi driver. (I minimise language to maximise clarity.)

"Belos?" I know now that it's an unusual request, but he seemed at a loss, so I pulled out my map showing the three-day mountain section of the Lycian Way and tapped unambiguously on Belos. I even traced the route I wanted the taxi to take with my finger: Finike to Belos. I threw in a "Lykia Yolu", thinking that might help, but that detail may have been the spanner in the works.

The driver consulted with his colleagues and in the discussion I heard Demre and Zeytin mentioned. I was sufficiently concerned to clarify, "Belos, not Demre." Everyone nodded. They understood perfectly: Belos via Demre. (In retrospect, why not? I guess meanings of Turkish words all the time.)

At first, as we hurtled along the coast, I figured the taxi driver must know of a short cut - and I was distracted anyway by the scenes of my life flashing before me. Line markings on the road were ignored and each corner was cut with the finest precision. We'd gone 5kms before I made him understand that I wanted to go directly to Belos - not walk there from Demre. "Oh, Likya Yolu, no?" (Darn spanners....)

He was very apologetic, turned around and tried to make up for lost time on the way back. Noooooo.....! Clearly feeling bad about his misunderstanding, he even tried to compensate by playing tour guide. In articulate Turkish he explained what some tiny feature in the far distance was. Could I see it? I tried hard, quickly, but my "yes" was not convincing. There! He sighted whatever it was along his extended arm, finger pointing .... and it wasn't until my "yes, yes" became quite hysterical that he gave up on the lesson - but not to concentrate on the road. Immediately, he took out his mobile phone and dialled a number - as though he was reporting me to some authority and recommending that my visa be revoked immediately for insufficient interest in the Turkish skyline.

Once we were on the right road, he thankfully slowed down. We ended up somewhere in the vicinity of Belos, but there were way more road junctions than my map showed, so I couldn't locate myself with any certainty. I wasn't game to just get out in the middle of nowhere and start looking for markers, so we turned around and drove back slowly until I found one. Yay!

First marker - of not very many...

Although the drive up was quite pretty in itself, I always prefer to walk on the path, because it's reliably beautiful and peaceful; but, today was a bit disappointing - the waymarks were so confusing for much of the way that I abandoned them and walked back on the road until I got to the 4km sign and the path became clear.

Clear, but not fool-proof. I had lost it and was retracing my steps, when some trail angels, in the guise of young German trekkers, appeared. They had made the same assumption as me but, luckily, had a GPS with them which took us all back to the turnoff we needed.

This is the path, but you have to turn off it on the right.

And there is the X I missed.

Trail angels

First view of Finike

I was back at the hotel by 1.30 pm, feeling nicely tired. I've had a bath and done some more washing. Time to go shopping for supplies for my next stage. Not sure I feel like moving on yet. Will leave off with some photos of my time here....