Monday 28th April, 2014
The Lycian Way is not an easy walk. The days are long and tough because the path is slow; it's very rocky, with significant ups and downs. However, the mix of natural beauty, ancient history, rural villages and relaxed holiday towns, makes it very special. Also, the fact that there are dolmus and taxi options for much of the walk, means you can "design" the walk to suit your interests, capabilities and circumstances.
Guidebook
I don't feel that I can comment with any great authority on the Kate Clow guidebook, because I didn't often find it useful and, so, didn't use it much. I had a compass with me, and liked being able to check that the path I was on as I set off was going in the right direction, but when I really wanted help, she just wasn't there for me; her description rarely matched my experience. Sometimes there was not enough information to work out where I was or where I needed to go next, and often she made reference to things you couldn't see or recognise. Nothing in the landscape is labelled and few things are sign-posted, so it isn't helpful to refer to them. I don't have the guidebook anymore, to make more useful comment, as I progressively tore pages out to lighten my load.
Of course, we all love and appreciate that she has created this amazing walk - and, at least, the fact that there is a guide book gives many of us the confidence to do the walk. But, I think she should give the guidebook to someone uninitiated to trial - someone who doesn't know Turkey and hasn't done the walk, whose opinion she values and who is prepared to be honest about its shortcomings.
Waymarks
Not having a GPS, I was totally reliant on waymarks and they worked for me - with the help of occasional trail angels, in the guise of other walkers and locals. The waymarks are not always as frequent as I'd like or as clear, but they are often supplemented by cairns and unofficial markings, like splodges of paint or arrows in various colours - all helpful. Nevertheless, on some sections - for example, where the path was a G1 track, crisscrossed by goat tracks, it was a matter of taking off the pack and searching for the next waymark.
It's a shame there isn't a moderated forum for walkers, such as the one Kate initiated but subsequently closed down, to share current information and to co-ordinate voluntary efforts to assist in way marking. We can and do assist with cairns, but there is a lot more good will among walkers, to help each other, that goes to waste. Loney Planet's Thorn Tree Forum was the only semi-active forum I found. Other than that, I found some trip notes, such as those by Jeff McDonald in 2002, on his website Pam'n'Jeff.com, very helpful.
Weather
For me, the April weather in Turkey was very stable and reliably fine. I only had three days with any rain at all, and then only for a couple of hours each day at the most. Nights were cold but days were pleasant and, when walking, I didn't need more than a tee-shirt. I didn't need my waterproof pants at all and could have gotten away with the lightest of cheap ponchos.
Solitude
I expected to have much more companionship on the walk than I did. There were only three days on the whole walk when I had company. I realise now that most walkers stay at the accommodation recommended by Kate Clow on her Accommodation link on the Cultural Routes Turkey website. I'm not sure I'd have done the walk at all if I'd known it would be such a solitary walk for me. Being alone certainly made camping a less attractive option.
It also meant, though, that I had nice interactions with local people. Shepherds and villagers were invariably helpful, and in towns and villages, males and females of all ages checked to see that I was OK - that I was comfortable, that I was happy with my seat/room/meal, that there wasn't something more they could do for me. (Hmmm, two youngest daughters of mine, it seems that bag ladies inspire more compassion in Turkey than in Mosman....)
Technology
My iPhone has still not been unlocked, so that was a complete waste of money and quite useless as a safety measure. The little Samsung I bought in Istanbul would have enabled me to ring for help, as long as I could get coverage and make someone understand where I was. I guess I'd have rung Ahmet in Istanbul...
My iPad mini was great, not only for blogging, but for company/entertainment. I carried it in my ballet-compatible Pacsafe trekking handbag, which protected it and made it easily accessible for photos.
I carried a real camera as well, in case I want photos of print-publishing quality. The iPad and iPhone are fine for digital publishing but with a dpi of 72, they fall way short of the 300dpi required for printed pics. The real camera made me feel like I was working and, so, gave me a serious purpose in doing the walk.
On my iPad, I had installed an App called MapsWithMePro, which showed the Lycian Way and was also meant to show me exactly where I was, in Turkey. Unfortunately, it only ever found me when I was in towns. I would really recommend that solo walkers take a GPS.
Gear
I was happy with the gear I took, but could have left out some items. I didn't need my Tevas at all as the path is so rocky that you need robust footwear all the time. For the beach bits, a light pair of cheap flip flops would have been fine. I also didn't need my waterproof pants.
Useful things that I took were my ballet-compatible Pacsafe trekking handbag; my toe socks; my buff, which kept my hair from being an issue; my fleece vest, which went over my camera and handbag, making them less obvious; my transition lens glasses; and my pashmina, for visiting mosques, dressing up, and bundling my clothes in to make a pillow.
Creatures
Wildlife included lots of lizards, tortoises and bees, two snakes (one elegant miss, 40cms, wearing beige snakeskin with a subtle, classy sheen; and one baby, startled at finding itself abroad alone, and wiggling frantically to get to ..... somewhere else) and three squirrels.
The tortoises have shells about 20cms long. Of course, they usually pull their heads in when you approach, but once, when I sat very still during a pack rest, one walked right up to me and bumped into my leg. They are very weirdly designed with their seriously knock-kneed forelegs. They teeter along on their front toenails - as though wearing tortoise stilettos.
Vegetation
Worth noting are the dense prickly bushes frequently encountered. If not exactly a hostile element of the environment, they are definitely assertive in claiming their space - hooking shoe laces and tearing clothes, rather than yielding a millimetre for anyone.
A final word, on plodding
In his delightful book, "The Curly Pyjama Letters", Michael Leunig's character, Vasco Pyjama, comments:
When you plod, everything seems to take forever, and forever is a lovely thing once you stop being scared of it. Strange, how something that takes a lot of time can give you the feeling that there is a lot of time - and a lot of space and a good measure of ease.
I think tortoises get that....
The "gargling angels" that Leunig mentions, just might be trail angels, too....
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