Day 30; Geyikbayiri
Yesterday I mentioned the daily blood loss and today is a personal best, I draw blood at 9.17am helped by an early start. I was clambering over a wood pile while climbing a steep slope because the shepherd had put up road blocks to direct traffic to his tea stall.
Blue skies though the temperatures have been better for walking recently.
I am near the finish and get a glimpse of white houses with red roofs. Then yet again the route throws up another hurdle which has a Lord of the Rings "thou shalt not pass" feel.
Stopping at a church on the trail there is the option of walking 100 metres out of my way off the trail to see some ruins. At this point I feel like a ruin myself and opt for a close up of the church and a long distance view of what may - or may not - be the ruins.
It is 2pm at the church and with only 3km to go I see the old dog is tired as we have been on the go for six hours and I opt for a rest. The dangerous section I expected today didn't materialise and I think I did that late yesterday. The end when it came comprised a pack of barking but harmless dogs, a slog up tarmac and this is the nearest I will get to a finish line.
My rest and recuperation accommodation for the next 3 nights has a large and cool restaurant and my cabin still smells of the new cedar it was built from and it has air conditioning. They are helpful regarding the dog, allowing him in the restaurant and taking a photo to get him re-united with his family if he has one. Though I did nothing to encourage his walk I do feel some responsibility and will need to seek out some proper dog nourishment.
With the Lycian Way's evolving trails I could have walked further but this is a natural end point and one where I can recover and do some short walks. I have been a little hard on myself in describing my preparation as poor when in reality things have gone smoothly. Bringing a tent was the only possible miscalculation but I didn't know how I would cope with the conditions here; and actually the tent saved me from either long and arduous days or taxi transfers in the mountains; I used it 3 times only. It did allow me to get into the mountains after Göynük which was a remote and fantastic walk with excellent wild camping.
More than any other adventure this walk has tested me. It tested my planning before I had stepped off the airplane at Dalaman airport, it tested my adaptability whenever a change of plan was required, it tested my physical ability to cope with heat, terrain and rucksack weight and it tested my self reliance on a route where you meet few other English speakers.
Someone messaged me to ask if I was happy to have chosen the Lycian Way. The reply is of course in poetry form. I like to interpret this as Frost saying the choices we make are what make our lives and, as Aslan says in the Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, "To know what would have happened, child? No. Nobody is ever told that." We can only talk about our choices, not what might have been. I made a choice, "And that has made all the difference."
The Road Less Travelled by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
