For all you walkers out there, I posted about the Carian Trail last month and I have just returned from a short "recce" on section 2 of the trail - The Datca Peninsular.
Myself and 2 friends spent 4 days trekking on the section and had a tough but enjoyable time there. The trekking is a lovely mixture of coastal hilly paths, mountainous forest trails, and lush green valleys. It was quite "lumpy" in sections with some quite hard climbs (particularly with a fullish load).
Some of the highlights were the beautiful secluded bays (some only achievable by walking in), stunning coastal views synonymous with this area and also the ruins at Knidos were very impressive (the trail runs through them !).
Some of the drawbacks were; The lack of natural drinking water (wells etc.) and the remoteness of the trails coupled with hot weather did create drinking/cooking water management issues. Also again due to the remoteness of some of the sections camping is a must (unless you do a section in a day and get back to civilisation - not always easy). Bees, we didn't have a problem, but I could see the potential !. Also a minor irritation (which increases through the day as you get more tired !) are cobwebs as thick as cotton thread stretching across the trails between bushes on narrower paths, wielding a branch before you as you walked helped alleviate this.
We also found the trail marking very inadequate in certain areas, considering it is a relatively new trail and they are spending a lot of time marketing it, the plus side is that the GPS files are very good, apart from when the originators got slightly "geographically challenged" themselves.
All in all a lovely region for trekking and I can't wait to visit the Carian Trail again as soon as possible.
Here are a few photographs for you;
A reminder of the website
http://www.cariantrail.com/
