10. Loryma - Asardibi

Last evening it got quite windy once again, and during the whole night my tent had to prove the wind stability the manufacturer promised. It did, but the wind came only from the foot end - the perfect direction. Sidewind stability is not so awesome after all.

Anyway, it was quite rainy in the early morning, but happily I had set up my tent on higher grounds; all around me was a big puddle. Crawling out of the tent (literally), the sun was shining bright again, very nice. Can't get enough of sun after all.

Only a half hour long hike later I unexpectedly find myself at the crossing where the detour to Karamaka goes off - that was fast. I have to say I'm not super motivated to take on that detour of a few kilometers, but I want to see the ghost village and the nice beach after all. And what would it be to walk all the way down here just to skip the last hour or so to the tip of the peninsula!

Soon I meet the first houses, mostly fallen in or overgrown. Even a windmill and the remains of a church are still here. I frequently lose the path, but eventually I arrive down at the blue sea with a small beach; a spring and patches of grass making the area a nice and remote campsite. The beach is full of trash though. As I have neither company to enjoy it which nor a lot of food left (however that happened, I was shopping only yesterday in Taslica!), so I won't stay here for long. Instead I decide to go back to the crossing using the other way up, where I of course get lost numerous times again.

So now the trip back up north begins, but mostly on different paths. Having come down the east side of the Bozburun peninsula, I'll go up on the west side now. Soon I find the ancient spring described in the guidebook, with a shadowy spot beneath some tree nearby - perfect location for a lunch break.

After eating and resting (and avoiding the sun) for a bit, I continue walking. My plan is to at least make it to the beginning of the road back to Taslica, and the guidebook planned 4 hours for that part. Usually I'm faster than the times given, but not here - simply because I spend at least one hour looking for waymarks. A few times the path leads across big green fields, with no indication whatsoever where on the other side the path is going to disappear into the brushes again. I'm starting to get annoyed, set up some cairns for later hikers and finally make it to the road by early evening.

As I find a flat spot just beside the road, I realize that this was probably the loneliest day of my whole life. I didn't meet a single person, not even see one from a distance, I didn't speak a word to anybody but myself. Interesting experience.