#hiking the lycian way Çukurbağ

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Hiking the Lycian Way: Hacıoğlan Deresi - Phellos - Pınarbaşı - Çukurbağ - Kas

Day 3

Distance hiked: 20km 

For breakfast we ate left overs from dinner the night before and set out on the trail by 7:30am. For a brief stretch, the trail followed a street along an inviting shady pine forest. But, shortly after it was up, up, up for the next several hours on an uneven mule trail. The steep incline cut through a dense forest on a rock strewn trail. Our wobbly feet searched for secure footholds among the loose rocks. Rocks tumbled away startling a large snake who slithered away with a rustle of leaves. Our tired legs were grateful for our hiking poles as we pushed and pulled ourselves along.

In the dense coverage of the forest it felt like the heat and humid were trapped; it was stifling. We were sweating profusely and reminding each other to drink water frequently. As we neared the top of the hill, over two hours in, we emerged from the trees into a hot, scorched clearing with a peppering of scrubby bushes.  

Three hours in we passed by an abandoned stone house once home to a shepherd, then continued on until finding a small wooden structure next to a water spout. Here we refilled water and stopped for a much needed rest. Two horses leered at us in the distance, decided we were uninteresting, and walked off. Somewhat rested and hydrated, we resumed hiking on the unremarkable trail for another hour, losing the trail markers and backtracking a few times, grr.

The overgrown uphill trail was growing tiresome, but when we least expected it, about 5 hours after starting the hike and feeling defeated, we quite literally stumbled upon Phellos, an ancient hilltop city. Remains of stone tombs were still evident but the rest of the site was in ruins. Rectangular shaped rocks, once part of buildings littered the ground leaving only a clue of what this city once was. Its position on the highest point around suggests it was something spectacular. We poked around for awhile exploring the ruins and surprisingly bumped into a pair of hikers coming from the other direction on a day hike. It was an incredible experience to get up close to these remote and abandoned ruins.

Feeling fatigued and ready to set up camp, we picked up the pace to head downhill toward the final destination on our route for the day, the city of Pınarbaşı. After leaving the tree coverage half of the way down the descent, we entered an exposed red, rocky trail. We failed down the steep descent, attempting not to twist an ankle on the loose baseball sized rocks at our feet. This section of trail was covered with unruly prickly shrubs, stabbing us through our pants. From our the downhill descent we could see the tiny town of Pınarbaşı below us, just a stretch of homes and a mosque on one street. We knew where we were heading - a small caf�� that we had read serves food and allows you to camp on their property. We could almost taste the sweet relief of ending the hike.

We stumbled into town and greedily filled our water bottles at the public water spout. We found the café but were informed they had no food. With the language barrier we were unsure if they weren’t serving food because of Ramadan or low season. Deflated, we trudged on to the next town a few minutes down the road, Çukurbağ. It turned out to be just a handful of homes with no market to be found. We hoped someone would stop us, identify us as tourists and welcome us for food or shelter with promise of our money. But, no such luck. 

It was then we recognized we would need to change our plans. We would need to head to the larger city of Kas. We’d planned to hike to Kas the next morning, but in need of dinner and a place to camp, we would have to catch a ride to Kas. We waited at a covered street-side bus stop in vain, then ended up hitching a ride to the next small town. We hopped out of the truck bed, purchased an absolutely necessary ice cream cone and intended to try our luck at hitchhiking the rest of the way to Kas. Luckily for us, there was no need! At that moment, ice cream cones in hand, a bus came flying down the road, a sign for Kas hanging on the windshield. We hopped on and arrived in Kas 20-minutes later.  

Once in Kas Scott used his phone to find a camp ground. We walked to the campground only to find out it was full. We walked 20 minutes to another campsite and paid more than what seemed fair to camp on a wooden platform up the hill from a road, under an olive tree. Our legs were officially jello after our hike and additional, unexpected trek to campsites. As Scott struggled to set up our tent, which was larger than the wooden platform, a woman working at the campground walked up with two plates of foot. Perhaps it was her way of saying sorry for ripping us off or Turkish hospitality. 

We were struck by the commotion and traffic noise of the city and missed the serenity of our last two camp spots. Kas is an actual city in stark contrast to the villages we’d grown accustomed to the past two days. With little energy left, we crossed the street to a super market, picked up some odds and ends for dinner and ate back at the campground. We were both asleep by 9pm. It was a challenging day with little reward, the hike was a bit boring and rather torturous in the heat.

< Hiking the Lycian Way Day 2

Hiking the Lycian Way Day 4 > (link coming soon)

Lycian Way Planning Guide