One of the "outings" I had been most excited about taking the family on during our time in Turkey was a day-hike somewhere along the Lycian Trail, or Likya Yolu. The trail winds it's way around the southern coast of Turkey from Fethiye to Antalya (close to 500 km in total). When we decided to make a road trip of it to Antalya, I knew that might be our chance to make a hike work. Staying in Olympos proved to be a great jumping off point for the hike to the Gelidonya Lighthouse. This was a super long day for the little ones, but they made it...just about 12 miles I believe!
Ready to Roll
Onward, to Gelidonya...
Turkish poppies and the Meditteranean Coast
Taking a look up the coastline
My boys
At one point, Ryan veered off of the beaten path, as he often does, and headed down to the waterfront. We hiked along the shore for a long time, which was great fun, except that Jake & Josies shoes were soaked by the time we made it back to the trail. Sigh!
We had a good time exploring the tidepools
Jake built a raft
Thys made a wildlife discovery
And Ry made some discoveries of his own
The water was so beautiful!
And the drinking water we happened upon was well-recieved
Mia found a monster wishie!
We came to a fork in the trail that led up another mile or so to the lighthouse. The hike was pretty steep... a stretch in ability, and patience, for some of us.
The views were well worth the climb
Ry climbs for a better look
Gelidonya Lighthouse
How long has THAT been there?
Once we made it to the lighthouse, we discovered that Jake & Josie were getting blisters from hiking in their wet shoes. The hike back meant treading carefully for them. We had no bandaids (lesson learned), so Ry rigged up some little bandages for their feet and the older kids took turns offering piggy-backs to J&J when the going got rough.
We made it back to the trailhead by dusk with some tired little bodies in tow. But, we made some great memories that day and saw some earthly beauties we may never see again!
On our way back to Olympos we found a gozleme shack, which meant good grubbin'
Jake and Josie found a retired pink volkswagon to dine on...good times!
No comments:
Post a Comment