Today was a road option rather than the steep and dangerous cliffs, even though it meant an extra couple of kilometres to track end. Then to our chagrin the accommodation was about 1.5km out of town.

Bade farewell to our new Yukon buddies , the cats, dogs, chocks  and forlorn boat captains, with no business,  to tread a busy rural road for about 5 Kms.

Rural is rural and wives and grandma’s still don’t merit a ride up front in truck or tractor, they are dispatched to the tray or the trailer while the male sits up front.

It is a real subsistence environment with many of the houses having little fruit displays they either man or leave an honesty box at.

Our road route was overlooked by the main track high in the rugged mountains and any glance upward cemented the view we made the right decision.

Walking was hot in 27 degree temperatures, with the occasional gust of wind. Air quality was terrible and haze like conditions  often spoilt picture quality or the view.

Even out here building new houses was a priority with order of importance the view, fence, gate, retaining wall- size of house- seemed irrelevant. One development was 5 or 6 tiers up the hillside.

Aside from farming there was a bit of forestry, with something like 7 million trees planted after the area near Olympos was  devestates by bushfires in 2016. There was a great memorial about  the fires with picnic tables, ironically we had sat on a pile of dirt 300 metres beforehand for a break after about 3 hours of walking.

Olympos village was another example of the enormous number of pensions (B and B’s) built in this part of the world. Many are cute bungalow types often with small cafes and bars on the roadside.

We stopped at one outside a camping ground with a gelato sign outside and tried to get a tasty treat. The guy had no idea of the flavours and when he did open the lid they were frozen solid. On reflection we think he may have been one of the campers trying to make a lira.

Down the road was a museum of American collectibles including a gas station. Snapped my first 2 pictures of the place, to be reminded by owner to read the sign ‘no photography’. Hard to think it was very enforceable and the place wasn’t open anyway.

The closer we got to Olympos  ruins the more dense the accommodation and cafes became. Many sat on the edge of a dry river, directly below the towering cliffs. One even had treehouse accommodation.

End of season is pretty obvious with 90% closed and most traffic heading to the ruins. The mountains directly above provided great opportunities for a couple of rock climbers.

The ruins dated back to 300BC and were in pretty good condition. It was an interesting hour climbing through them. Olympos was certainly a major riverside town in its day with access to the sea as well. 

At the end of the ruins it was another world as you popped out onto an amazing beach with torquoise water and a dumping shore break.

The pebbly beach was actually packed with a whole lot of body beautiful’s and it was a much younger demographic than other places. Interestingly water on the edge was full of rubbish so not many swimmers.

Trod the river bed into Corali and there was a local market . In Cirali there was not a bit of spare room on each side of the road. It was a true ‘build and they will come’with accommodation and food. The  place was buzzing with people in cars and on bicycles and a lot of restaurants had good custom.

We enjoyed lunch and then played find the accommodation. You would think the Plaj or Beach Hotel would be right there within touching distance of the water. After at least 5 different sets of directions we walked for 1.5 kilometres without a sign. We even thought about asking police but they and ambulance crew were tied up with a drama on the beach. One last attempt and believe it or not we were 50 metres from home. Not going to be a good starting point for tomorrow with track well to the North.

Found host and it was a 200 metre walk to a very impressive ground floor unit. The whole complex was well populated with about 30 turning up for dinner including another guided group of 7 Russians walking trail in the opposite direction.

Another great shower, but a defective hair dryer which was a slight problem for Jane which turned a little worse when I returned from shopping excursion and mentioned mine host was fanning the coals of his BBQ with one which worked perfectly.

A visit to local shop confirmed the demographic, with me being only one over 30 on both outward and return trip, passing many running or cycling- I was the one hobbling,.

We topped off our vegetarian dinner guest list with one cat and beli be it ot not a hedgehog- the wolf or wild boar must still be coming. Cow and pig are long .odds to turn up.

Our hopes of a cable car ride the day after next were dashed in a discussion with a local guide who politely said that our knees would not make the walk back down.

Tomorrow has a couple of sizable, but manageable, uphills and there is no ‘take the road’ bailout.