My favorite place to backpack in Turkey is the Kaçkar Mountains. I’ve backpacked there three times, and there are many other routes I’d like to do. I’ve also backpacked in Aladağlar a couple times, and in Sarıkamış, Yenice (Karabük), and Köroğlu Dağları in Bolu. Küre Dağları in Kastamonu are high on my list. I crossed them by bicycle once but haven’t backpacked there yet. However, the most popular place to backpack in Turkey is probably the Likya Yolu right here in Antalya.
The Likya Yolu (Lycian Way) is a marked 500km trail from Antalya to Fethiye. Because there are lots of road access points, it’s possible to do most (all?) of the route as day trips if you’re willing to organize a lot of transportation. The Antalya hiking groups often do just that. They hire a dolmuş with a driver so getting the vehicle from the start to the finish point is no problem. I did one of these hikes when I was first in Antalya in April 2012 from Adrasan to Karaöz.
This short stretch from Kaleüçağız to İnişdibi is, somewhat amazingly, only the second section of the Likya Yolu that I’ve walked. It’s a good section, taking in the archaeological sites of Teimiussa (aka Theimiussa) and Simena. I had been to Kaleüçağız once before with Ferda when we did a little seakayaking so I knew what a beautiful spot it is.
The original plan for this day had been to walk from Kapaklı to Kaleüçağız, but it was raining hard in Kapaklı so we decided to drive on and see if the weather was any better in Kaleüçağız. It wasn’t. We waited for about an hour for the rain to let up and ended up having pretty good weather the rest of the day. However, because of the late start, we cut the hike a bit short by coming out at İnişdibi instead of Kapaklı. That sort of flexibility is quite easy to arrange when you have a driver and ubiquitous cell phone coverage.
Mediterranean views, Likya tombs, easy walking — a good outing.
Haaaaa, Likya yolu ! By bike is nice too, but not that close of the sea ! Always nice to read your blog !