Lycian Way on your own

Tips for those who want to hike the Lycian Way in Turkey on their own.   

Kirill Yasko, a tourism instructor who has been leading groups along this route for 7 years, shares his experience. The main topics are how and what maps to plot a route on, where to look for water and food, whether it is possible to cook over fires, etc. 

The Mediterranean coast of Turkey, where the Lycian Way passes, is in many ways very similar to Crimea - the climate, landscapes and even the language are very similar. If you “know how” to walk around Crimea, then you will succeed in Turkey. There are good trails, beautiful mountains and hospitable mountain people 

Paper maps and guides

I have never seen normal paper maps of the Lycian Way. Yes, there are maps from Kate Clow's guidebook. Yes, lately the Tibet Outdoor store has been selling other cartographic materials. But! This is all a terrible amateur performance with an extremely low level of execution and accuracy. Springs, parking lots, settlements, shops and attractions are not always marked correctly and clearly. These are diagrams rather than detailed maps. Don’t expect to arrive in Antalya, buy a map and you’ll quickly and easily figure out the route. I insist that you need to prepare in advance and seriously.

The already mentioned guidebook by Kate Clow at one time became the impetus for the popularity of this route. But to be honest, there is not enough practical information in it. Yes, and it’s hard to read (in English). Again, don’t expect to buy a guidebook before the start and understand on the go what they write about and where the hell the water will finally be. 

Maps for GPS and smartphones.

Here the situation is slightly better. On torrent trackers you can find maps of Turkey for Garmin. There is also a wonderful resource opentopomap.org. But all these maps contain only a thread of the route along the Lycian Way. It won’t work yet to search for water or parking lots either.

Route marking

The Lycian Way uses a common marking system. Along the entire route, there are quite a lot of markers in the form of the “Polish flag” (red stripe + white stripe). Markers are placed on stones, trees, road posts and fences. At key forks there are more informative signs (where the trail is, distance to the destination, etc.). If at a fork one of the directions is marked with a red cross, then there is no need to go there - look for the “Polish flag”. Occasionally there are alternative routes with markings of a different color (blue-white, yellow). The markings are regularly updated and are applied quite tightly in both directions. In this regard, the Turks did their best. 

Shops along the route

The trail is long and carrying food from the start along the entire route is probably not the most rational idea. You can and should buy additional products along the route. But you need to understand well where and what you can buy. There are supermarkets in any town and, of course, they have everything you need (except for stewed meat, condensed milk and delicious sausage). But rural shops are usually very modest. There is almost always bread, cookies, rice and pasta. But as for everything else - depending on your luck. On the Eastern part of the Lycian Trail, or more precisely in the Takhtali region, the only normal store is located in the village of Gedelme. Please note that rural stores operate according to a bizarre schedule “as it is more convenient for the owner” and may be closed at the most inopportune moment. Always think of a backup option.

Firewood and fires

On the Lycian Way, despite all the efforts of our tourists (foreigners do not burn fires), there is still a lot of firewood. Firewood can be found relatively easily both in the mountainous Eastern part of the route, and on the beaches in the deserted bays of the Western Lycian Way. Most of the sites have long since acquired stone fire pits (in 2010, when I first visited here, there were almost no fire pits). In general, you can safely go camping “with wood.” It is not necessary to carry a saw and an ax - you can easily get by with collecting brushwood and pine cones.  

“No fires” signs are rare. But when you stand in a dry pine forest with a thick layer of pine needles under your feet, even without a strong wind you involuntarily begin to think about the consequences. Be careful - there are already traces of fires along the route.

If you are traveling in a small group (1-4 people), then a turbo stove - a wood chipper - can be an ideal fire equipment in Turkey. You can easily “feed” it even on the treeless coast of the Aegean Sea on the new super-long route - the Carian Trail. 

If you prefer gas burners, you can buy cylinders in the Tibet Outdoor travel store or in hunting stores in Antalya. Recently, tourist gas is increasingly being sold in Aygaz stores ("adult" gas equipment, household cylinders, boilers, etc.). But don’t expect to buy cylinders at any village store along the route.

Parking lots, campsites and guesthouses.

Purely theoretically, you can put up a tent anywhere. I stepped aside from the path, kicked out the scorpions from under the bushes and lived to my health. But usually, overnight stays are still tied to the water, and in these places clearly visible habitable sites are formed. 

If night finds you in the village, you can always ask someone to come into the yard. Shop owners are especially willing to allow you to put up a tent on their premises)). 

Many Western tourists travel the Lycian Way without tents. They go from village to village and live in boarding houses. This option did not seem very convenient to me. Firstly, the pensions are unreasonably expensive for my taste. Secondly, they are located quite far from one another. In general, this is not Nepal, with its cheap lodges every two hours. 

Water sources

What I love about the Lycian Trail is the abundance of water:) Well, compared to the Carian Trail. In general, the southern climate and karst rocks certainly do not contribute to the abundance of sources. Therefore, the route has to be built based primarily on fresh water. Check out my Lycian Way tours - they are designed just so that every overnight stay is near a spring. Sometimes it’s a good-quality captured spring, sometimes a sluggish river, or an old cistern well, or a banal tap in a shower on the beach, or a tap near a rural mosque. When going out on the route in the morning, it is better to take a full bottle of water with you (2 liters per person) and not really count on the fact that you will come across a source of drinking water during the day.

If you are going to travel along the arid coastal part of the Lycian Way, you will probably often come across the already mentioned well-cisterns. These are cylindrical tanks made of stone blocks sunk into the ground. The water in them is “stagnant” and requires mandatory treatment. Sometimes I just boil it, sometimes I add disinfectant tablets to be safe.

Questions

Surely this text did not answer all of your questions about organizing your trip. This instruction can and should be expanded and supplemented. Therefore, do not hesitate to send your questions and suggestions to me at [email protected].

Results

As I already said, with proper preparation, walking the Lycian Way on your own is a completely realistic plan. If you feel that you are not yet ready for this, then perhaps you should first go hiking in Turkey with one of our groups (the schedule of upcoming tours is given below), and next time you will continue exploring the trail on your own. Still, the Lycian Way is a very long route (about 500 km) and not everyone can complete it in one go.