Doing it the Lycian Way

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Today we are travelling through the mountains to the Mediterranean to an area that was home for the Lycian people around 1400BC onwards. Originally from Crete the Lycians brought a different language and a unique political system. They would send a delegate from each region to be the representative at the capital. Washington copied this democratic system in America. The Lycians also proved themselves the most troublesome for Alexander the Great to conquer. They were so passionate about not being ruled over that when defeat was finally imminent they rounded up the women and children into a church and set fire to it killing all those inside. The men fought on to their deaths. No-one would rule over the Lycians. They preferred extinction. The Lycia area is a bump of land on the south west corner of Turkey between Fethiye and Antalya and from what we see on the drive is obviously great for growing tomatoes and other salad stuff as every square metre of the valleys are covered in 'greenhouses’ (actually more like polyhouses as they’re all white not glass). Each has a small pool next to it for irrigation.

All round this coast is a famous 500ish mile walk, the Lycian Way. It winds around the cliff sides bordering the sea, but we won't be walking any of it this time. I'd love to come back and give it a try as the scenery is beautiful and the colour of the sea so intense. It's not known as the Turquoise Coast for nothing!

This is also the area of Turkey most loved by the beach holiday types particularly the Brits, Russians and Germans each preferring their own favoured towns. Our first hotel stop is Fethiye but we are spending most of the day at Oludeniz (which confusingly translates as 'dead sea' but is actually a big wide bay of the Mediterranean Sea not the place you float while reading a newspaper).

Two of us decide to pay the princely sum of 7 Lira (about a pound) to go into the ‘blue lagoon' area (not be mixed up with its namesake in Iceland, more confusion!). It’s virtually deserted, just a couple of family groups and some bored looking pedalo/canoe guys. We spend the next half an hour trying to edge ourselves slowly into the cold water of the lagoon. I've found a fellow incher inner and she takes even longer than me to eventually brave the chill and swim. It’s great having no waves in this sheltered lagoon. A wayward little fish hasn't remembered that the tourists are returning after the winter and crashes into my friend’s leg before rebounding out of the water like a skimming stone.

After our swim we take a wander around the lagoon footpaths and see a notice board with an aerial photo of the area at the height of summer; white beach loungers cover the entire area, tightly packed in in regimented rows with hardly any space to walk between them. It looks dreadful and we’re glad to be here so early in the season when hardly anyone's about.

There are loads of paragliders in the skies above the bay. Quite a few of the people in my group are going for tandem rides later in the day. I loved it so much when I tried it in Nepal that I went for a solo lesson when I got back to the UK. My insurance and bank balance don’t cover it this time so I give it a miss.

Instead I head back to meet up with rest of the group who are going back to our hotel in Fethiye, obviously having another ice-cream first, actually my third of the day! We stop on the way to check out some Lycian rock tombs cut into the hillside. The largest is the tomb of Amyntas, identified from a 4th century BC inscription, but nothing else is known about him or why he warranted such a grand burial tomb carved into the rock.They are pretty impressive structures.

In the evening we take a wander down to the harbour area to see the boats and watch the sun go down. We take a look around the fish market where there are lots of little restaurants that cook the catch of the day. You order from the fish monger and the restaurant takes your fish away to be cooked. It smells far too rank for me and a couple of other vegetarians in our group so we find a different restaurant away from the fishy corpses and enjoy some less blood thirsty food!

We've another day of travelling tomorrow so it's an early night for me.

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