The Hike

Friday, September 29 - The boys spent the morning playing in the pool as I packed up the backpacks. We left the Octopus Inn and continued south past the big coastal hotspots of Marmaris and Fethiye. We drove literally to the end of the road. The drive was amazing and a bit scary. From the last big town, Oludeniz, we continued south on a small road that started paved, then became gravel and finally was just a bumpy dirt track. The road curved along the coastal cliffs, which reminded me of Highway 1 along Big Sur but only about one lane, curvier and dirt. The views were incredible over the Mediterranean, blue sky melding into deep blue green water. We left our car at the end of the road. After a few false starts as we tried to find the right trail, we hiked down the steep trail to the beach. Liam and Colin carried all their personal gear including clothes, a book and sleep sack. The drive and the hike both took longer than we expected. We approached Kabak beach just as the sun was setting. The first person to meet us was a huge sheep dog we named Babur. To understand our Babur reference read The Places In Between. Doug and I just did. It is one Scottish man’s account of his trek on foot across Afghanistan in 2002. The man adopts a huge dog on the trek and names the dog Babur after an ancient explorer in that region of Afghanistan.

We arrive at the beach camp Kabak Natural Life camp and no one seems to notice us for awhile. Everyone is busy cooking and getting dinner for the camp ready. Liam and Colin are fascinated with the menagerie of animals. In addition to Babur, there were several species of chickens, cats, goats, burros, ducks, geese and other birds I couldn’t identify. All animals were running free except for the burros. One mystery of our stay was why the cats did not stalk the baby chicks. We decided they were afraid of the mother hens. The cats were definitely outnumbered. Babur stalked the cats!
Finally a young man asked if we wanted to see the accommodations so we could choose one. He led us up and down a series of paths lit by little solar path lights (imagine the Ewok village from Star Wars, sort of hippy sixties, Turkish style). There were lots of bungalows on stilts and tents and platforms with cushions. Doug at one point asked me if I knew what was going on or where we were suppose to sleep. I had not a clue! Eventually he led us through an area with about 20 canvas tents on wooden decks. We chose two of tents because they were small. Colin and Doug slept in one tent and Liam and I slept in another. The placed was packed. Every tent was filled. I think we got the last two tents. Luckily we arrived just in time for a yummy dinner and then we crashed in tents. As we snuggled into our sleep sacks Liam said, “Mom this is the most out-there place we’ve ever stayed.” We finally fell asleep despite the late night revelry of a group of German guests.

Saturday, September 29 - We awoke with a rooster about 3am then 3:07 am, then 3:23 and then every few minutes with the burro braying or a rooster until the sun came up. We decided the animals must have been suffering from jet lag as they woke up so early!

Since we were all up early we headed down to the beach to watch the sunlight spill over the hill, across the sand and then over the water. Babur joined us. The water was warm, much warmer than up near Sirince and there were waves. Babur is a water dog. He bounded right in. We all played in the surf waiting for breakfast to start.

After breakfast, we began our hike up to Alinca. We were hiking a portion of the Lycian Way that follows the coast along ancient paths used by goat herders. Along the way we saw remnants and reminders of people from earlier times like sections of old walls, springs, and wells. The hike was 7km, which didn’t sound too challenging until we realized it included an elevation gain of 760m (about a half mile up, the temperature was 95 degrees Fahrenheit and we were scrambling up rocks part of the way). I was so impressed and proud of Colin and Liam. We really pushed and the boys were definitely outside of their comfort zone. Both kept going and did not give up. We also told them that there was no choice as they either had to head back or make it to the next village or we slept on the trail. About half way up we came onto a saddle in the mountain with an olive grove and there was a group of Israeli backpackers sitting in the shade of the olive trees that applauded Colin and Liam’s progress up the mountain. Colin and Liam were the only children on the trail that we saw the whole day. Actually we only saw one other pair of hikers all day, who were also Israeli. There was a well and the backpackers had pulled up a bucket of water. The cold water poured from the bucket on each of our heads was like heaven! We followed the Israelis up the mountain as they sang loudly.

After almost six hours we made it to Alinca, a small, cliff-top village of a few houses of shepherds and farmers and the most incredible views of the Mediterranean 760m below. We were so proud of our accomplishment. We celebrated with a huge bottle of cold water and a chocolate bar split in four pieces. Then we took cold showers and sat on our porch to watch the sunset slowly intensify to fiery orangey-pink and then fade to moody bluish-purple. The four of us sat mesmerized by the show and stilled by our exhausted muscles. We feasted on a vegetarian spread by two Turkish surfers at the Dervish Lodge, served perched on the very edge of the cliffs. We all agreed it was our best meal in Turkey.

Friday, September 30
We considered staying a second day in Alinca to re-cooperate, but it was hot and due to the drought there was very little water for drinking or refreshment. So we decided to head back to Kabak where we parked the car. The weather was even hotter and the hike was longer, 11km. Luckily the hike was downhill this time and the views were mesmerizing. We hiked from shade spot to shade spot alternated between singing, “Shade, glorious shade or you’ve got move it, move it or here we go, here we go, here we go go go (an Ozomatli song)!” We passed through a pine forest and found an ancient cemetery next to a spring. The end of the route to town was steep, falling down steep. At times, Doug or I would hold onto Colin to keep him and his backpack from tumbling over. Liam’s face was beet red, but he was stoic. Of course, I was worried about heat exhaustion so we drank water and more water. We finally made it to the village of Kabak and bought another bottle of cold water from a pension to celebrate on their front porch.

What an adventure. At dinner that night we all were discussing the things we take for granted in our normal life, like water. We experienced first-hand the struggle some people have for a clean water source. In Denver, also a dry place, people use water, clean enough for drinking, to water lawn and cars. As Liam noted there are no green lawns here. Water is for growing food or drinking. In Alinca there has been a drought for at least the last year. In villages with roads, water is brought in by truck and we saw a women in Kabak with a wheelbarrow full of water bottles walking home. The boys also did not understand why I treated the water with iodine in Alinca. I explained that our tummies were used to different water and that we might get sick without treating the water. I guess that as an environmental engineer who studied drinking water disinfection technologies this topic is critical to me, actually heartbreaking. Still, Doug got sick…

Liam is writing a piece about how it feels to be in Turkey and what he has observed that is different than at home. We will post it soon with Colin’s writing about the hike.

Here are some more photos from our hike.