Sea of Plastic, Grotto, Pelican

A day of challenges, solutions, and surprises began with our departure from Gavuragili.

The usual breakfast of tomatoes, boiled egg, cheese, olives, bread and honey was followed by hasty packing of things needed for the day. This was put in one (my) backpack. The rest was bagged up to be collected and shipped to our next stop, the Flower Pensiyon in Patara. (After the first two days of walking, which were frankly exhausting, it was decided it would make sense to "send ahead")

The track was easy going and easy to follow, a steady climb through pine woods that provided shade and a resinous fragrance. This section ended with a scramble up a bank to join a tarmac'd road. The "Way" was supposed to follow this for 500m then take a path to the left. Thinking we had found this we began to climb the wooded bank. With hindsight it seems this was not part of the Lycian Way at all, and probably a path made by forestry workers, so it did not connect with the next section of the LW.

The tarmac road made a wide loop to bring it over a pass. We forged ahead, knowing that the Way made a short-cut, crossing a ridge, then rejoining the made-up road on the other side, Finding our way back down to the road proved tricky but we picked our way down through olive grove terraces, then found a path alongside a small gorge. Eventually we dropped into the dry bed of the streamwe and walked the final stretch to join the road.

Before us the massive plain of the Patara Delta stretched for miles, bounded by the hills and mountains beyond.. Rows of the massive glasshouses and polytunnels now cover most of this plain making it look like a sea of milky plastic.

Pleased with ourselves we headed back towards the massive site if ancient Pydnai, once a prosperous port and power base of the Lycian Greeks.

Rounding a bend we suddenly saw something very striking; a massive cave or grotto, about 25m diameter, like half an upturned bowl. It was naturally formed out of limestone with a pool at the bottom and some wierd suspended encrustations on the ceiling. It reminded me of the man-made grotto in the Parc les Buttes Chaumont in Paris.

There was a tree planted centrally in front, and two recesses at the back of the cave seemed to continue into the hillside. It was easy to imagine it being regarded as a shrine to Greek or Roman deities.

A long walk past the glasshouses and into a conservation area where mimosa trees reeds and tamarisk dominate brought us past Pydnai and to one end of the Patara sands. Here too Loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay eggs.

There is a frail-looking footbridge across the stream the flows down to the sea. In a refreshment pavillion alongside this we bumped into Charlie and Rupert. We had last seen them on our way to Faralya. (We had shared a moment of Lycian Way disorientation with them and enjoyed hearing their tales of the perilous descent into Butterfly Valley.)

Together we headed North towards Xanthos, another great archaeological site in this area. On the way I say delighted to spot a Smyrna Kingfisher, perched on twigs beside a stream and to see it dive for fish.

I asked a Turkish dolmush driver the name of this bird. He phoned a friend and came back with the reply; since a fish is 'pelac' and bird is "kush" this bird is 'pelac-kush' or 'pelican'. I'm not sure we were talking about the same bird!)