Tour Guide, Bodrum, Turkey
| 4 mins read
Historical ruins. Deep gorges and rugged mountain peaks. Small carpet villages and lofty minarets. Western Turkey is a refined blend of nature, culture and history and a pair of hiking boots worth. Turkey has had a reputation for cheap holidays and belly dancing, but packets can walk boots in the travel bag, there are plenty of great experiences in and around the high mountains, as seen in the distance from the hotels' balconies in Bodrum. "Sometimes you meet a peasant who asks if you've seen his cow," explains our guide Erkan. He eagerly gesticulating with his arms while he controls the jeep, which brings us to the beginning of the route.
"From March to april eagles soar over canyons," he says when we get out of the village Dagbelen. He points to the path that will lead us through the village, over hills and past the tangerine groves and leaves us in the dust cloud from the jeep. Slowly the village life along the way are olive trees as far as the eye behind the stone wall built without cement - a technique that Turks have learned from the Greeks, who were in the area until 1924. House ruins stand erect among the new houses, goats bleating and bimler with their bells, a man riding by on his donkey. In the background mountains Black Mountain. After 1.5 km along a gravel path when we go to an a forest cover, called a yayla. The remains of a Roman Catholic church stands erect and majestic, and testifies to a history of churches and monasteries. A landmark, you do not have a chance to come near, unless you are "off road" and on foot.
We end up in the village Gölköy. "Merhaba," we welcome the family, sitting outside their house in the shade of a fig tree. They waved us over to him and asks if we want a glass of Chai, Turkish tea. We nod and they get two small tulip-shaped glass of tea for us. Historically rocky landscape The local gudie Murat has shifted from flip-flops for hiking boots and stands ready with a backpack filled with water bottles when we stopped the car in front of the restaurant "Pelikan" of the village Kapikiri. Awaits us with a hiking paradise of the past Herakleia with steep cliffs and rugged mountain peaks, cave paintings, stone engraving and unique rock formations. We start from Bafa Lake. The small fishing boats lie on the beach with the morning's catch, behind them is the calm water. We go through a Wooden and along a narrow gravel path. So begins the rise to the mountains along the royal road. The red walk markings are almost invisible on the barren rocks, so we make sure to keep up with Murat. After a half hour walk on steep cliffs and over rocks and granite and look for the pyramid-shaped rocks, we are inside Christ the cave and admire the murals. We take pictures and continue along the remains of city walls, visit the Athena Temple and ends at the top of Latmos mountain where the historic mountain landscape unfolds.
Forest path and carpet village
The silence is broken only by the insect sum and our own footsteps as we walk along the 15 km long forest path. We walk through shady thickets far away from city noise and tourists with pale bellies at Ægæerkysten. The forest is like an herb garden of wild herbs mixed with the scent from the many pine trees. The route ends in a narrow gravel path leading to the blanket village Etrim if slender minaret seen in the distance. We eat our lunch at Basol family farm. Son Engin showing us around and explains carpetweaving and dying. "It takes a month to tie a square," he says. During the tour, we noticed the ladders that stands up against the trees. "I have Etrim hens a special tradition of sleeping in the trees," says Engin and laughs. The next day brings us Erkan us to a fort at Pedesa on a trip that ends in Bodrum with a tour of St. Petersburg. Peters castle, which Hospitaller built in the early 15th century. The last day we hike over the mountain tops to ruin the city Sandima and climbs to the top of "Cheese Rock." We finish walking holiday with a well deserved swim in the sea at Yalikavak beach, while hiking boots have a timeout on the shore.