Day 1; Faralya
Well, I'm off then! The Lycian Way benefits from a clearly signed start point and a photo is mandatory.
There is also an overview map of the Teke Peninsula (the turquoise coast) though it doesn't reflect how the Lycian Way cuts inland or the various loops and spurs.
With airless 30 degree heat in London in the week leading up to the start of my walk I had had plenty of opportunity to get acclimatised and practiced at drinking plenty of fluids. Not that I made full use of that opportunity preferring to rest. Curiously, I had spent the week trying to coral the four water bottles I have brought with me so I can carry up to three litres of water; somehow they kept hiding from me. When I'd checked my bag in at Gatwick the weight was 10.1Kg and I was carrying 1.0Kg of hand luggage. This includes a representative amount of food but not the 3.0Kg of water I'd need to carry so 14.1Kg in total with no real options to eject anything. In practice I managed just fine with the weight today though I am not looking forward to any technical sections where I may need to scramble, climb or descend steeply.
The walk starts as I hope it means to go on. You may get bored of these pristine images though I don't think I will tire of them.
The paths hooks up left around the cliff edge.
It is a gradual uphill all morning and I eventually get to a bulldozed track servicing some developments which I follow to the first settlement of the day which boasts a Mosque a café and a smaller café. The signage and my app tell me to turn right off the track which I try briefly but there is no obvious way through so I follow the road round, through the village and rejoin the path. At the smaller café I am the only customer and inadvertently order the gozleme which requires dough to be thinly rolled and cooked on a large domed hot plate then filled with greens and salty cheese. With a sweet Turkish tea and salty cheese I needn't have bothered with today's hydration tablets. The hot plate is about two foot across and the gozleme quite the operation to make. In Istanbul the restaurants have these in operation in the front window to draw the punters in.
Settlements usually have a spring and there may be toilets and water with the Mosque.
Bee keeping is big business up here.
The water trough has large lumps of bark in it allowing the bees to drink and they are busy drinking.
The guidebook had advised 7 hours for today's section and that is how long it took with breaks, so a successful day and I have my calibration for daily times. My accommodation is right on the way and there is food over the road with a view down to the sea; with this in mind I don't go exploring Faralya.