An American Life in Istanbul

Our route along the Lycian way started in Alinca. The plan was to hike 7-8 km to Kabak, stay there one night, then hike 7-8 km Faralya, then hike a long 10-15 km to Ovacik. Faralya is where the beautiful butterfly valley is, which we never made it past. Despite rather short distances, the path was quite steep, and at times hard to follow. It was a bit too hot and the sun too strong, so 7-8 km a day turned out to be just right.

Almost immediately along the route we got lost and found ourself amongst a flock of goats (is flock the right word for goats?). Although the goat herder didn’t speak English, he understood Kabak and pointed us in the right direction. Oddly enough, after following his circuitous directions we found ourself back on the trail and promptly ran into him a second time. There must have been a short cut he did not tell us about.

Every once in a while you would come across where a rock slide had been. Although it hardly rains in this part of Turkey during the summer, it rains quite a bit in the winter. On this particular rock slide there were two lonely goast who must have gotten separated from the rest of the herd (that’s the right one isn’t!).

All along the way to Kabak the view absolutely amazing. Tall mountains, turquoise sea, green forest, no people, no boats. What more could you ask for?

I know what it looks like but it’s not. This plant looks like cannabis but everyone assure me that it wasn’t. It was growing wild everywhere along the trail.

Another nice shot. We hiked down from up there.

As we got closer to Kabak we saw donkeys! Since Kabak is nestled in a deep valley on the coast, Donkeys are a very good way to get things in and out of the valley. I tried to convince David that all Donkeys spoke Spanish, but he didn’t believe me. Notice the guitar on David’s back. He carried that guitar for the entire five weeks he was in Turkey.

An advertisement in Kabak. All the places to stay had little makeshift wooden signs around. The whole valley had a very natural un-touristic feel to it.

The whole way down into the valley all I could think about was jumping in the sea. I was hot and sweaty and that cool blue water looked so good. We didn’t even bother to find a place to stay. We went straight to the sea and jumped in. David forgot his guide book so actually only I got to jump in. He had to hike about a kilometer back up the trail where we stopped for a rest.

This is the place where we stayed. Looks pretty comfortable right? The place was fantastic. The few guests that were staying there were extremely friendly, intelligent and out going. One was an American living in London who had grown up in Istanbul. There were two Italian families and David and I. After my cool swim in the sea, I lounged around the place admiring the view (the whole valley is surrounded by mountains), swimming in the pool (the beach was too far after walking all day), playing backgammon and drinking tea. I could have stayed there a lot longer than just one day. The place we stayed at was called Thuran Camp and was 35 ytl per person and included breakfast and dinner.

Our camp had a small library. You could take and read any book while you were there. If you wanted to take the book out of the camp with you, you had to send it back with a second book so they could add to their collection.

Thuran Camp is known for its excellent food. Besides a fantastic dinner and breakfast, you could also order stuff during the middle of the day. I of course could not resist the wild boar gulash, which was awesome. Apparently in the wooded parts of southern Turkey, there are wild boars running around.

I noticed that in this particular joint in the roof, it took them about seven nails before they were able to make contact with both pieces of wood. Made me a bit uneasy, but I inspected my bungalow and it was made much more professionally.

This shot was taken from the full moon camp, also in Kabak. We went there to check it out, but had very little shade, was completely empty and was too far from the beach. I am glad we didn’t stay here, but the view from their sitting area was quite spectacular. They had a hammock to the left outside the frame of the picture which was probably the best placed hammock I have ever seen.

Back on the road again the next day. The background is Kabak. We climbed up the hill and followed along a much less scenic but flat road. Climbing out of the valley Kabak was in was tiring especially since it was nearly noon when we left and therefore quite hot. However, it was nothing compared to what we were going to face in Faralya.

Some baby sheep came to greet us as we walked along the road. David was inspired by my bandanna and tried to fashion one for himself out of a towel.

An abandoned construction site overgrown with purple flowers.

we came across this fountain on the side of the road underneath a mulberry tree. We stopped and rested a bit while eating loads of fresh mulberries. We didn’t drink the water though. We had plenty and we were nearly at the end of our hike.

The last leg of the trip was hiking down from Faralya to the butterfly valley. A few people we passed on the road warned us of how treacherous the path was, and David told me someone had died while trying to climb down into the valley. Despite numerous warnings of having to use ropes in some parts, we decided to go anyways. With 20 kg (45 lbs) packs we began our descent.

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