Antalya to Beycik

Father and I were up fairly early and walked back out the restaurant to enjoy the view some more. We had a spectacular view of the nearby mountains which look very tall and steep. I have to go back into the lobby to get a solid wifi signal but then we do a little research about Antalya. I start back looking at map of the best way to get back out of this warren on little streets! Then we look up directions to the Antalya History Museum. It’s only about 200 meters away but there are lots of one way streets going the wrong directions so we are going to have to circle around. The Museum is very close to the road we want to take out of town so we decide it’s worth moving the car. We have our breakfast, check out and load the van. We find our way out of the warren and onto the main road where we instantly lose our way and spend about 45 minutes driving around until finally with guidance from Randy’s phone GPS we recognize were we are and soon are at the Museum.

We head in and view a wonderful collection of local and regional artifacts, statuary, coins, clothing, jewelry, weapons and carpets. It really was a good overview of the history of the region from a nearby stone age cave right up to contemporary times. Those who finished early toured the gift shop and then gathered under a huge arbor in the courtyard. There was a nice breeze blowing and Grandpa and the girls had ice cream while we waited for Martha to finish. Then we got on the road out of town and were soon driving in the steep mountains were had viewed at breakfast. We saw what looked like a pull off with a picnic area. We didn’t have time stop as were went right into three tunnels under the mountain.

We pulled off at the first town and bought picnic supplies an drove on looking for another picnic pull off but we were out of the nature preserve and there weren’t any more. We picked a turn off by a dry riverbed and headed up river until we found a bit of a pulloff and ate our picnic in the van. This was the least clean area I had seen to date and it was quite trashed so we didn’t stay long. We went up into the mountains and were started to look for a place to stop for the night when I realized that we were low on diesel. I slowed down and we decided it was better to forge ahead as we had not seen a station for a while. I saw the sign for the town of Olympus and headed down but didn’t see much and it 15 km down to the town. We stopped at a roadside teahouse and the old man owner who was heating water on a charcoal fire said to go back to the main road and 3 km further would be a station. We thanked him a drove slow and sure enough there it was.

I bought petrol while my brother called a nearby mountain inn which was on the Lycian Way. Which is a hiking trail that runs for 500 km (300 miles) along the coast Antalya to Fethiye. We wanted to walk on it so we headed backtracked about 15 minutes to the tiny hamlet of Beycik and ground our way up a very narrow twisty road to the Olympia Mountain Lodge. We had to pass some tiny local houses with goats, cows and chickens in the yard and up a steep hill to a gate. Behind the gate was the lodge set in a nice garden with a swimming pool. The owners were a semi-retired attorney from Anatoliya and his architect wife. They got settled in and we all headed for the pool for a swim. It seemed very clean but tHe bottom very extremely slippery! We were safe as long as we floated.

We had gained a lot of altitude and were up on the side of Mt. Olympia. The air was much cooler that Antalya and the pool water was bracing. We were out pretty quickly as the sun was dropping towards the mountain tops. I pulled out long pants and a fleece shirt and was still a bit chilly. Soon our host noticed and started a fire in the fireplace. We all huddled around and had a drink while the chef scrounged us up some dinner. He didn’t know we were coming so he hadn’t prepared a special meal Soon we were ushered out to the porch and served a very tasty chicken and eggplant dish with bread, salad and ice cream for dessert as we watched a huge yellow moon rise over the mountains down by the sea.

Our host, his wife, mother-in –law, and brother all sat around the fire and chatted with us after dinner. The mother-in-law was German but the wife grew up in Turkey and now worked for an architectural firm the worked in both countries. They built the lodge themselves and during the hiking seasons had about 2000 guest hikers from the Lycian Way stay each year. We inquired about climbing the mountain but were told is was 11 hours both ways. Our you can hike 5 to the top and take tram down the other side. We didn’t have that much time to spare. Soon my eyes were drooping and I headed my room and crawled under a pile of blankets was almost instantly sleep. It was quite a day. Until anon. Peace.