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11th November, 2019

• Day 2: Ovacık to Kabak
• Distance: 18.4km
• Ascent / Descent: 710m / 810m
• Weather: 27 degrees C, mostly overcast, hot when the sun came out but otherwise a pleasant hiking temperature
• Accommodation: Shiva Camp (bungalow), ₺90 pp including D&B
• Total cost for one (Turkish Lira ₺): pomegranate juice in Kirme 10, (lunch made from breakfast leftovers), water 5 in Faralya, accommodation 90 = ₺105 (~£13 / €16 / US$18)

Just after 8am we get a knock at the door and the owner brings us in a large tray of food that barely fits on the table. We’ve got boiled eggs, fresh bread, salad, condiments, olives, cheese… There’s so much food we have enough for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. The black olives are delicious, and lucky for me, Sarah’s not a fan so I get hers too!

Now that we’re on the official trail, we can navigate using the offline GPX tracks we uploaded to Komoot. As we also want to record the trail (so we have our actual walked track and all the information like elevation, speed etc), we decide to take it in turns navigating each day (to save the other’s battery life).

After a short walk, we’re at the official starting point for the Lycian Way. We’ve got this!

We begin climbing and are greeted with spectacular views of the shimmering white sand beach of Ölüdeniz. I’ve paraglided onto that beach twice, once in around 2003, the other in 2013. Amazing experience.

The views just get better and better as we ascend and watch the paragliders soar through the sky.

I’m carrying 3l of water and am reluctant to drink it. I’m a saver, always holding onto food and water just in case! We pass a well, but without a bucket, it would be tricky to refill.

I remember I have olives wrapped in cling film left over from breakfast, so I eat them while walking and wonder why on earth I haven’t done this on previous hikes? They’re salty and delicious and hit the spot.

We pass a cafe and stop for a short break. I have a pomegranate juice and Sarah has one mixed with orange juice, she’s now a convert. I test out my newly acquired Turkish on the owner (‘mereba‘ = hello, ‘guzel‘ = delicious, ‘teşekkür ederim’ = thank you) and she seems to understand what I’m saying.

Sarah kindly offers to fill my water bottle and braves the swarms of bees surrounding the trough. The only bees we’ve seen have been near the hives or near the water… I’m carrying antihistamines just in case.

As well as olives, we pass pomegranate, fig and lemon trees. The figs appear to have been picked already and the remaining pomegranates are mostly split open, but there’s an abundance of olives.

We arrive in Kabak village at 5pm, one hour before sunset. We don’t know of any wildcamping areas further on and surprisingly have phone service, so we do a search on booking.com and google and find a few options nearby. Shiva camp quotes us the same price to camp or stay in a bungalow, so cosy bungalow it is.

From start to finish, it took us 8hr 5min (walking time of 5:23) to walk 18km. I should know this lesson, it was drilled into me on the Kumano Kodo; you can’t just look at the distance when planning a hike without understanding the terrain and elevation gain/loss. All ideas of averaging 25km per day are out the window!

We’re using Komoot* for navigation and to record our own tracks. Prior to departing the UK we uploaded the GPX tracks to Komoot so we can now use them for navigation (with voice commands). We’re also using Komoot to record our own daily tracks which gives us the above maps, elevation profiles, distance, speed etc. You can find our collection of tracks on the Komoot App by searching ToughGirl for Sarah and followingthearrows for me. Or click the link in the caption on the above map to go straight to the track.

*Komoot premium was gifted and we also received sponsorship for this hike.

To see Sarah’s vlogs of our Lycian Way hike, click here. You can also follow her on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and keep up to date with the Tough Girl podcasts here.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I’ll add a FAQ post at the end of the trip.

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