My New Year resolution is to be more adventurous, climb more mountains, spend more time outdoors and return to the kind of crazy trips that drew you all to my blog to begin with. 2015 will be year where I'll happily embrace discomfort in return for an epic story.
Earlier this year, I decided I'm going to get back to the great outdoors and to hike as much as I can. Starting the year with tracking snow leopard and later sometime camping in front of an active volcano to the recent trek from Spiti to Ladakh, I've had some great moments this year. Well the year is almost ending and I couldn't be happier about all the adventures I've undertaken so far but the best was certainly was kept for the last.
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| The magnificent Lycian Ruins at Phellos |
I'm posting this short blog post from a camping site in Turkey as I prepare to head to the mountains for 3 days. I'm hiking a 430kms waymarked trail called the Lycian Way which is a footpath along the Turkish Coast from Fethiye to Antalya in the ancient Anatolia region. I'm hiking with a friend I met last year and we are carrying all our food, camping gear, water et al with us as we camp half the times and stay in pansyions(Turkish for guesthouses) the other half. The biggest challenge so far has been carrying the heavy backpack which weighs at least 15 kilos and the long distance we cover each day that range from 10 to 20kms at a time.
What excited me about this particular hike is that it's along distance trail. Going on a week long adventure is so different from doing something for a whole month! Besides, I'm hiking just with a friend which makes it all the more exciting and interesting as we both try to find our way, tackle the abundant shepherd dogs, camp in the wild and walk, walk, walk and then some more for all of three weeks.
What excited me about this particular hike is that it's along distance trail. Going on a week long adventure is so different from doing something for a whole month! Besides, I'm hiking just with a friend which makes it all the more exciting and interesting as we both try to find our way, tackle the abundant shepherd dogs, camp in the wild and walk, walk, walk and then some more for all of three weeks.
I'm already 10 days into the adventure and I have two more weeks of hiking ahead of us to reach Antalya. The first few days were tough getting used to the rigor but looks like I've fallen into the habit of waking up at dawn and walking till dusk or till the feet give away to the exhaustion. On the other hand, the coastal views have been incredibly beautiful, the charming little town along the sea are most amazing, super friendly locals and absolutely stunning ruins of the Lycian that dot the entire trail. I've got some amazing stories and a lot of research to do once I get back, but for now I can only share some pictures and moments I've captured on my mobile.
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| Stunning coastline and the rugged mountains of the Anatolia region of Turkey |
I've taken a local sim and there's network connectivity most of the times. This means I can post short updates constantly from my hike. Wish me luck and follow my journey along the trail as I try and post real time updates as often as possible here - http://instagram.com/neelimav/
Also, there's a contest running on the blog where you can win a Himalayan trek, have you participated yet? (CONTEST: Win 2 Himalayan Treks in India with GIO! )
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