Day 28; Hisarçandir
Its 1pm in the morning and I wake in the tent feeling cold. The mountain air is around 13 degrees according to the forecast and luckily it is calm with no rain. I only have a thin sleeping bag (a sleeping bag liner actually) so pull on what remaining clothes I have and soon feel toasty and warm. I know I am getting closer to Antalya as I can hear a plane overhead still climbing and I have seen a few plane contrails in the sky these last 2 days.
Today is 6 hours by the guidebook and camping will encourage an early start on a day where I can choose some tedious road walking to avoid a difficult section of the trail though the guidebook instructions are vague, providing summary information without elaborating.
Waking at 7.30am I stay in the tent waiting for some of the sun's heat to develop and research today's route options over a biscuit breakfast. I can't find the information on the difficult section until I look at yesterday's route guide and it is in there. I opt for the difficult route.
Here is an example of the phone app and the GPX Tracks information I am working with. The blue arrow is where I actually camped though the app showed the available camping some distance away. The blue water drop shows water which may or may not be useable though in this case it was a good and plentiful supply, so much so that some locals came and filled up large water containers. It is unusual to get so much information on a café. I can't validate the comments on the café but this morning I passed near it and the smell of goat was strong so camping was best.
It's a gorgeous day. I have the altitude, views and clear paths. At one point I see what I assume to be a wolf's lair under a boulder.
I loved the silhouetted trees here.
Trees growing out of the cliff face.
This one taken 10 metres from the view point.
I have been looking for a suitable subject for a photo of the many fallen or broken trees.
Or just trees.
I see a sign that says I have come 4km and have 12km to go. It is 12.30pm so let's see. In the event I reach Hiscarçandir by 4.30pm so 4km would be more accurate.
I am still limbo dancing my way through the forest which is just another obstacle.
A common sight are the pipes bringing water down off the mountain and in this case it is running down the old - but not ancient - aqueduct.
I have been surprised not to see more logging activity; cedar wood for boat building was a source of wealth for the Lycians of old. Here they also harvest the small branches as firewood.
After this point I follow the red and white flashes on the left bank of the river, after a while the path appears to petter out and GPS is saying to follow the riverbed which turns out to be too treacherous. The guidebook says to stay on the right bank. Frustrated and with a difficult descent ahead I backtrack 1km and take the loggers track which does have the correct distance. Later I deduce the markings were correct and GPS was out due to the steep sided valley and the guidebook had a typographical error.
The diversion did let me photo a sweet example of the autumn flowers.
Entering Hisarçandir I see an interesting house which I assume was built by a wealthy family as their summer house in the cool mountain air.
A feature of the last week is that accommodation is not clean and I wonder at that. From pansiyon to hotel it isn't that they haven't cleaned from the last guest but that, for example, the sink hasn't been cleaned in a month. I am surprised as until now Turkey has provided nothing other than immaculate accommodation.
