Day 39 - Cirali to Beycik

We get off to a 10:30am start. Not exactly crack of dawn. Our lack of punctuality is immediately regretted, as it is the first really hot day in a while. The forecast is for 30 degrees, and we need to gain 800m in altitude, over burning rocks. Seriously, today we go past the Chimera; the eternal flames. These have been burning continuously on the rocky hillside above Olympus since before man first started blogging. The Lycians, Greeks and Romans regarded the flames as sacred. These days tourists flock to them every night and cook marshmallows over them.



Thirty degree heat and flaming rocks. Fiona is convinced that the elements are conspiring against her.


Our plan today is to complete 3/4 of the 16km section described in the guidebook, and camp out about 4km short of the village of Beycik. Over the next week we will be passing through a series of national parks. There is a huge painting illustrating this at the gates to the Chimera. It has pictures of all of the animals that inhabit the parks; wild boar, turtles, eagles, squirrels, wolves. Wolves! The guidebook didn't mention anything about wolves. Are there wolves in Turkey?

We walk up past the Chimera, with frequent stops for hyperthermia, then down a valley with a babbling stream at its base. There are many tempting swimming spots, but I have other plans. At 1:30pm we reach Ulupinar, another town with restaurants over a river. We cool our feet in a cold mountain stream while waiting for our lunch to arrive. Another patron accidentally cools her mobile phone.

We exit the restaurant at 3pm, hoping that the worst of the day's heat is now over, and make good progress towards Beycik. About the time that we are due to start looking for a camp site, we notice a paw print in the mud. It is nearly as wide as Fiona's boot. With reinvigorated morale we decide to push on all of the way to Beycik. Arriving just before 7:30pm, this provides unexpected proof that we can complete full sections as documented in the guidebook, when suitably motivated. We rent a small cabin for the night, and go to sleep carefully scrutinising each distant howl.



Camp out tonight? Why would we want to camp out tonight?


Today's tortoise count : 4