When I was ready to leave, around 8AM, there was nobody at reception. I think they were still asleep. I waited a couple of minutes and then looked up the room prices on the internet and left the amount I think I owed behind the counter with a note. Hopefully I left the right amount.
I had looked for a trail map on the internet the night before and had trouble finding one. It seemed that there were a couple of books about the Lycian Trail that were mandatory if you wanted to find the trail and stay on it. I finally found a site where someone had marked some of the trail waypoints using Google Maps. I had studied those and had a idea about where the trail started, but I wasn't totally sure. I started walking in that direction and asked a lady who was out walking her dog and she helped me find the trailhead.
The morning portion of the trail led to Kaya ghost village, an abandoned hillside town with stone buildings. The trail then ended and picked up again in, Oludeniz, a town 10km away and I had to walk along a small road to get there. I stopped for a sit down lunch at Olueniz before continuing on. Once again, I had a bit of trouble finding the trail even after asking a several people. After wandering around for awhile, I finally found it and I was back on my way. This was the most spectacular portion of the hike. The trail led up a ridge overlooking the famous Oludeniz beach. I could see the beach teeming with sunbathers and could hear the prayers being broadcasted from the mosque in the town below. Paragliders soared above me, enjoying the same view.
At the top of the ridge, there was a well where I encountered a cheerful Turkish man with leathery skin and missing his front teeth. We tried our best to talk to each other but he didn't know a word of English and I didn't know a word of Turkish, so we didn't succeed. He showed me some herbs he'd been collecting along the path and then we took turns dousing our heads with the well water before saying goodbye. The trail was parched and only small bushes with confetti-sized leaves grew on either side, providing absolutely no shade. The sun beat down and the ground seemed to radiate heat as well. The terrain and intense sun reminded me of a hike I did in Maui some years back.
I reached a tiny town of only a few houses and a boy road up to me on a bicycle, excited to practice his English. I noticed that it seemed small towns in Turkey have two requirements for existence, a mountain spring and a mosque with a loudspeaker. I couldn't believe how all of these incredibly small towns each had their own mosque.
By the time I made it to my destination, Faralya, it was 7:30PM. With my lunch stop, searches for the trail, and frequent breaks towards the end, the journey had taken me 11 hours. When I checked into the hostel, they told me that I could watch the sunset and then they would serve dinner at 8:00. Perfect. I dumped my backpack in the treehouse I'd been assigned to and then headed over to the cliff where I was greeted by the sun setting perfectly in the center of Butterfly Valley. For $20 a night, I had my own private treehouse a stone's throw from the best viewpoint of one of the most famous valleys in the country, plus free breakfast and dinner. Wow.
The walls surrounding Butterfly Valley are so steep that you have to use ropes in some areas. It's no easy task. In fact, a couple of people have died in recent years by falling due to not following the prescribed path or by attemping the route while wearing a huge backpack. It took me about 45 minutes to get down and an hour to climb back up. There are some boat services that bring people to the beach from nearby towns, so the sandiest end of the beach had some people on it, but the other end was nearly empty. When I was in Fethiye, I saw a amusing poster advertising one of the boat services that said "Butterfly Valley - Only accessible by boat!" It's called Butterfly Valley because it is home to many butterflies, especially the Jersey Tiger butterfly, although I didn't see any while I was there.