Extreme Sightseeing

Kas - 5th October

Edd's visit wiped us out. More accustomed to gentle days at anchor, we weren’t prepared for a week of high-octane sightseeing. During his stay we've done two 20km walks over rough mountain terrain, visited a ghost town, numerous historic sites and a mountain gorge.  On top of all that, Edd ran 10km every morning!

Kale Koy - 8000 Greek inhabitants were forced to abandon the town during the infamous population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920's

With the help of Kate Clow's excellent Lycian Way guide we trekked up to the ruins of Phellos perched high above a fertile plain.

The former Lycian garrison was well worth the climb. Lycian rock tombs and monuments untouched for centuries stood in majestic surroundings on a strategic ridge with views on all sides. We had the place to ourselves - no great surprise, given its inaccessibility.

The final leg of the walk took us 1500 feet down a precipitous mule track back into Kas, our leg muscles complaining every step of the way.

The view over Kas from the top of the mountain path

Next we hired a car to visit Xanthos, the old capital of Lycia.

Rock tombs with modern polytunnels behind

Sir Charles Fellows kindly left these behind

Yet more tombs, a Greek theatre, a Roman agora, a Byzantine church. Sadly part of the site was looted by Sir Charles Fellows in the 19th century and put in the British Museum . The biggest challenge was to avoid the unofficial guides who lurked behind tombs to insist on showing us around.  We drove on to picnic at Patara, which was Lycia's chief port and then its capital after the people of Xanthos committed mass suicide when the Romans defeated them rather than face captivity.  Patara's ruins lie mainly unexcavated under sand dunes on the coast, its harbour now silted up and 3km from the sea.

The silted harbour at Patara

Taking a break at the Greek theatre at Patara

It's a magnificent place. We were in need of a swim after clambering over all the old ruins in the midday heat and went to the beach.

The day's highlight came at Delikemmer, a marvel of engineering on a hillside along the Lycian Way.

Roman engineering - interlocking stones to form a pipe

The 2,000 year old Roman water siphon system and aquaduct carried water to Patara from a spring several kilometres away. This section is at the top of a 20 foot wall. To our surprise we could see below us the Yesilkoy anchorage where we'd spent the noisy night with the gulets.

If we thought our exertions would bring a good night's sleep, we were wrong. Late in the evening a strong wind began to gust down off the hill. Towards midnight we heard a loud bang and all the lights went out. Some power lines had been blown together, and the resulting sparks set fire to the scrubby hillside, the flames fanned by the gusty wind.  It looked more dramatic than it actually was, but the fire brigade were still at work in the morning to keep the blaze from spreading.

Hillside ablaze seen from the marina

Our second walk was the more strenuous of the two. It took us from the small farming village of Bogazcik down 1,000 feet to the ruins of Aperlae, where we could snorkel over the remains of a sunken harbour.  Then back again.  It was downhill through the scrub, the path getting steeper and stonier as we went.

Spot the path!

We'd overdosed on Lycian tombs by now so Aperlae was a bit of a disappointment.

Yet more Lycian tombs....

The snorkelling wasn't that great either - the water was murky and the underwater ruins were hard to pick out. It was a long and exhausting trudge back uphill. On the way back we foolishly took a detour to the ruins of Apollonia and were exhausted by the time we'd picked a path back across a scrubby hillside to the car.

On the last day of Edd's visit we went to the Saklikent gorge.  It's a tourist magnet with loads of tatty souvenir stalls, but wading up the gorge itself was great fun. The air was fresh and the spring water was icy cold. After only 1km the gorge is blocked by a waterfall and you have to turn back, so we were spared a strenuous outing that day.
 

Thawing out after wading through the gorge

After we got Edd to Dalaman airport for his flight back to London, it was a relief to put our feet up for a rest. It was great he came out to see us and we loved having him to stay.  He's excellent company these days. It may have been exhausting, but we also loved getting off the boat and seeing more of Turkey.