We are sheltering in a minibus stop on the road from Fethiye to Ölüdeniz. According to the Mediterranean climate, the weather should be around 18-22°C,&nbsp;partly cloudy and clear in early April. The weather that breaks in the afternoon proves how accurate it was that we kept postponing the start of the Lycian Way hike for an hour each time due to the laziness brought on by the sunny weather in the morning. Laziness sometimes prevents lightning from striking one's head, enjoying the balcony of the pension increases one's chances of survival.Hailstones fall from the sky as if they would break the ceiling of the bus stop where we take shelter. Usually, we could walk to the motel in Ölüdeniz, but now, it doesn't seem like a wise decision. The hail that shakes the bus stop falls diagonally and sometimes parallel to the ground with the effect of the wind.<img src="https://images.aposto.com/2022/6/2/1658219646922.jpeg" style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px; border-style: none; position: relative; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box;" width="550" ratio="0.80" fr-original-style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px;" fr-original-class="fr-draggable">A bird's eye view of the Mediterranean<hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">When no one comes around for a while, I stretch out my arm from inside the stop and start hitchhiking. Since the tourism season has not started yet, there are few vehicles on the road. Luckily, after about 5 minutes, a pickup truck takes pity on us and stops and says it can take us to our hotel in Ölüdeniz (literally&nbsp;the Dead Sea).&nbsp;When we arrive in Ölüdeniz, we cannot believe the view we see. The sidewalks are white as snow by the hail. Streets with poor infrastructure have flooded with this sudden rainfall. "We are one of the very few people in the world who can see snowy sidewalks in Ölüdeniz in April," we think as we look through fogged windows.As we enter the hotel and dry off, we talk among ourselves about the importance of being in the right place at the right time. Realizing our helplessness in the face of nature, we list the alternatives of what would happen if we came across such weather in the middle of the course. It is a good lesson that we pay only by getting wet.The morning after the evening, we dry our clothes with the air conditioner and blow dryer, the Mediterranean climate is back. The gray clouds shrouding the blue sky are gone, and the sun is not overhead. In all seriousness, it is working overtime to warm us to the bone. The turquoise waters of Ölüdeniz gently meet the beach. We return to the point where we were caught in the flood the day before.<img src="https://images.aposto.com/2022/6/2/1658219773543.jpeg" style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px; border-style: none; position: relative; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box;" width="550" ratio="0.80" fr-original-style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px;" fr-original-class="fr-draggable">On the road<hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 fr-original-style="" style="margin: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.85); font-weight: 500; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Now it's time to enter the racetrack</h2>Like every hiker, we take photos in front of the Lycian Way sign. There are puddles of yesterday's hail in the shadows on the left and right. The dirt road is still not softened because it is early in the morning, but it is hard because it has been covered by the frost of the night. After a while, the ascent begins. We ascend to the foothills of Babadağ through ancient roads cut between the rocks almost 2000 years ago. As we ascend, more hail accumulates on the ground. It is as if we are not on the Lycian Way but a high mountain hike.To rest, we occasionally turn back and look at the view of Ölüdeniz in the distance. "A place where the most beautiful shades of blue in the world can fit into a single frame," is how I can describe the view. The unique dark blue of the Mediterranean Sea was broken by sand and pebbles into the most beautiful shades of turquoise and light blue. After ascending, we take a long break. The snow and ice are now on the Ölüdeniz side.&nbsp;"We are the rare people who walk the Lycian Way in snow,"&nbsp;we laugh.Illegal structures: Apart from the exquisite view we climb up and encounter, another thing that greets us is the illegal buildings. There are large and small constructions in the region, which do not have a building permit. "Only in this geography," I think, "could such a bunch of dugouts be erected on one of the most beautiful hiking routes in the world."As I walk, I think of harmful caterpillars with cocoons on the red pines. We are like those caterpillars that dry up the tree they burrow into and move on to the next one, somehow harming all the creatures in nature that are infected by them. They look like a part of nature from the outside, but they do a lot of harm like us.For lunch, we reach a Yoruk village on the way. A simple but delicious pancake is accompanied by a pomegranate juice that rockets our energy. We spend time watching the goats in the village. The price of the deluge the day before is to finish the 2-day trail in one day. Small for the 535 km Lycian Way but an enormous distance for us. Passing through nature, illegal constructions, and villages, the road finally descends to Faralya. In between, we come across carob trees.<img src="https://images.aposto.com/2022/6/2/1658219889447.jpeg" style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px; border-style: none; position: relative; cursor: pointer; padding: 0px 1px; box-sizing: border-box;" width="550" ratio="0.80" fr-original-style="display: block; vertical-align: top; margin: 5px auto; text-align: center; width: 100%; max-width: 550px;" fr-original-class="fr-draggable">Blue of the Mediterranean &nbsp;<hr fr-original-style="" style="height: 0px; overflow: visible; border-bottom: none; clear: both; user-select: none; break-after: page; box-sizing: border-box;">We end the approximately 19-kilometer walk at Aktaş Beach. Our knees ache, and the muscles in our legs are tense. We both know there is only one solution. We leave the weight of the entire path to the buoyancy of the water and throw ourselves into the blue arms of the Mediterranean. I evaluate the day in the slightly chilling coolness of the April sea.On the Lycian Way, at first, you think, "Why am I walking on this mountain slope?" Then one realizes that the real struggle is not with the slopes, the sun, the wind, or the rain, but with themself. They see their limits and enjoy pushing those limits. As we walk, the road digests the human, and the human digests the road. The labor in every step makes that path even more memorable.Walking teaches that every road has an end if one perseveres and sets out on it and that the joy of arriving is in the ordeal of the road. Then, while thinking about these things, one realizes that the trail is over, and the kilometers that grew in one's eyes have melted away. I thank the Lycian senate for bringing us this unique work.I think of a poet's lines that are very much identified with the Lycian Way:<blockquote fr-original-style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); border-color: rgb(255, 206, 20); border-width: 4px; font-style: italic; padding-left: 10px;" style="color: rgb(9, 9, 9); border-color: rgb(255, 206, 20); border-width: 4px; font-style: italic; padding-left: 10px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; border-left-style: solid; box-sizing: border-box;">Don't be sad if you can't find me,You will find my things.The stones I cut,The paths I have opened,You will find the statues I carved.And you will see,Thousands of years away,Our fingertips will touch.</blockquote>

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