Anna Sutton thought she was well-prepared for her trek through Turkey, but she soon realised she'd made one major mistake.

'Any sign of a waymark?" I hollered at the figure scrambling downhill through the olive terraces.
"No, nothing over there either."
"Well can't you work it out from the map then?" I asked Tom accusingly as he got closer. "I thought you knew how to take a bearing."
Four hours and 10 minutes into the first day of our walking holiday, we were lost and neither of us, it seemed, knew how to use a map.

It had all started so well. Two hours earlier we'd been in high spirits, sitting on the edge of a Roman aqueduct enjoying the views of the sea far below. We were halfway to Patara, where we planned to spend the night, we'd seen a bird of prey soaring in the cloudless sky and, best of all, we thought it would take us only another 20 minutes to reach a shaded spring where we planned to rest for the hottest part of the day.
Silently I cursed myself for thinking a walking holiday would be relaxing. I was the one who had made the executive decision - on behalf of my much more laid-back boyfriend - to spend two-and-a-half weeks in southern Turkey hiking on a section of the Lycian Way.

The route has only existed as a long-distance footpath since 1999 when Kate Clow, an Englishwoman who lives in Turkey, completed a massive undertaking to waymark 310 miles around the Teke peninsula, or Lycia as the area is known to historians. From the popular resort of Olu Deniz, it runs via Patara, Kalkan, Kas and Olympos to the urban mass of Antalya, skirting several ancient sites on the way.
It was the Lycian Way's remoteness that attracted me and that sets it apart from other long-distance footpaths. Without the infrastructure of more established trekking routes such as those in Corsica and the Alps, we were unlikely to find ourselves sharing the views with hordes of striding macho men dressed in Day-Glo Gore-Tex. However, the flip side of this splendid isolation was that when we did get lost on that first day, there was no one to turn to for directions.

As tension mounted I began to feel out of my depth. Not that we hadn't prepared for the trip. We'd spent several weekends doing the rounds of London's outdoor shops, selecting and eventually buying technical shorts, walking socks, camping mugs, water bottles, blister kits and other hiking paraphernalia.
Decisions such as red versus purple Maglite, water-purifying drops versus tablets, and discussions on the relative merits of the 1,200 and 1,500 gram sleeping bags had occupied many of my waking hours. But in our frenzy to accumulate all the right gear, we'd failed to acquire basic navigation skills.

We did eventually find the path by retracing our steps to the last waymark and searching the surrounding terrain methodically until we located the next one. By that time, though, I was too tired to enjoy the idyllic descent through ancient gnarled oaks to the promised spring.

I spent the remainder of the day moaning quietly about the blisters bubbling on my feet and fantasising about how much lighter my rucksack would be without my 700-page tome on Byzantine history, one of many last-minute packing mistakes.

But walking holidays, I soon discovered, have a masochistic appeal. After a day's rest in Patara - with elaborately bandaged feet and stiff shoulders - I felt ready to set out again. My pack was a little lighter. Nine months on I'm still waiting for a parcel containing my history book, which I posted home from the village.

Encouraged and discouraged in equal measure by our first two days we headed up into the hills above Kalkan by taxi to trek on a mountainous stretch of the Lycian Way. We arrived in the hamlet of Gokceoren at dusk and tried to locate Mustafa, who, we'd been told, might put us up for the night. Mustafa was nowhere to be found, but a handsome moustachioed man in his mid-thirties insisted we stay with him.
We were ushered into a farmhouse and invited to sit on cushions on the floor next to Huseyin, our new-found friend and his toothless father while their respective wives served us a succession of dishes - tomato salad, fresh curd, bean stew, yogurt and grapes from the garden. As an added touch of hospitality and with a glance in Tom's direction, the twinkly older man switched the television from the news to a variety programme featuring scantily-clad dancers.

For a shepherd in a remote Turkish village, Huseyin had played host to a surprising number of foreigners. His collection of photographs revealed that at least five other tourists had stayed with him - none remembered more fondly than Ute, a German biker, who had left him her spare helmet as a gift.
Staying with Huseyin and his family was one of the highlights of the walk and marked a turning point. For the first time since our humbling experience on the initial day, we relaxed. Over the ensuing days, we began to enjoy the landscape instead of worrying about veering off the trail and running out of water. Painted onto rocks, stone walls and olive trees, the red and white waymarks were now appearing with reassuring regularity.

Reaching Phellos, the first of the remote ancient sites on our chosen route, reminded us why we'd been drawn to the Lycian Way in the first place. We climbed to the top of a steep ridge and came across a sprawling necropolis. Several sarcophagi were still standing upright and intact. Many more were tilted at precarious angles, their saddle back lids lying to one side.

Next to a pair of monumental house tombs we found a life-size bull carved in relief on a slab of stone. Alone among these ruins, with no entrance fee, no fenced perimeter and no tourist tat, we felt as though we were the first to discover them. In one direction row after row of mountains stretched inland; in the other, we had expansive views of the sea.

It was a four-hour walk down to the resort of Kas. After an hour's walking, we cheated and hopped on a minibus.

Although the high points - the hospitality of the shepherds and the silence and beauty of the ruins - had more than made up for the heat and exhaustion, I had a collapse of will in Kas. I was so tired even the beach and the shops couldn't lure me away from the pension.
However, partly out of pride and partly because I'd set my heart on walking from Kas to Ucagiz - a three-day trek along one of the most deserted stretches of coastline - I wasn't quite ready to give up. So the next afternoon, to escape the worst of the heat, we paid a fisherman to take us round the first headland - a 45-minute boat ride, which cut five hours' walking.

The next day's hike was every bit as beautiful as I'd hoped, with constant views of the sea, which varied in colour from translucent turquoise to deep indigo. We spent the hottest hours either collapsed under a carob tree or swimming in the clear waters. The only sounds were the low hum of hornets speeding by and the occasional purr from the engine of a distant fishing boat.

Getting there
Depending on where you pick up the route, the two most convenient airports are Dalaman (west of Olu Deniz) and Antalya. Between May and October, charter flights to both Dalaman and Antalya are available from tour operators such as Airtours (0800 028 4934, www.mytravel.com) and JMC (0870 555 0440, www.jmc.com) departing from a range of UK airports. With prices for a return flight starting at about £200, this is probably the cheapest and most convenient option.
Outside the charter season, the only airline to offer direct flights to the region is Cyprus Turkish Airlines (020 7930 4851, www.kthy.net), with three flights a week to Antalya from Stansted airport. Prices for a return start at around £250.
Turkish Airlines (020 7766 9300, www.turkishairlines.com) offers flights to Antalya and Dalaman via Istanbul from £300. A cheaper option would be to fly to Istanbul (returns from £160) and continue by long-distance bus to Antalya (12 hours; £10-£20 one way).

Specialist walking operators
Exodus (020 8675 5550, www.exodus.co.uk) offers both self-guided and escorted tours - some of the latter led by Kate Clow, who waymarked the route.
The escorted tour, called The Lycian Way, lasts 15 days and covers the highest section of the route (£795 for a single traveller including flights). Explore (01252 760000, www.explore.co.uk) runs an eight-day programme called Lycian Village Hike (£395 for a single traveller including flights).
Alternative Travel Group (01865 315678, www.atg-oxford.co.uk) runs a one-week escorted tour called Lycian Way (£800 for a single person not including flights).

Essential reading
The Lycian Way by Kate Clow (Upcountry , £12.99) is the definitive guide to the long-distance footpath. Kate Clow has also set up a website (www.lycianway.com), where you can find updated information on the route.

Getting around
Minibuses, known as dolmus (pronounced 'dolmush'), ply up and down the coast stopping at all the seaside resorts between Antalya and Fethiye. Prices are very low; for example, £3 for the 4.5-hour journey from Antalya to Kalkan. Taxis are also good value; for example it cost £25 for the hour-and-a-half journey from Olympos to Antalya airport.

Visas
Many visitors need a visa to enter Turkey. These are issued on arrival at the airport and at all other official border points. The cost of a three-month single entry visa is £10 for British nationals/£5 for Irish nationals.

When to go
March to May are the best months for wild flowers. In October, the sea is deliciously warm but some of the wells and springs along the route may have dried up - so be prepared to carry extra water. The only months to rule out completely because of the heat are July and August. However, if you don't cope well with hot weather, you may find any of the coastal sections, which offer very little shade, hard-going between mid-May and mid-October. You're most likely to be rained on in November and December.

Route planning
The three key factors to take into account when planning your route are: when you go, how long you go for and how fit you are. To walk the length of the Lycian Way - from Olu Deniz to Antalya - would take five to six weeks. Generally the route gets higher and harder as you head further east. It is advisable for inexperienced walkers to start with a one or two-day easy section to get a feel for the terrain.

Maps
The only decent maps of the region - on a scale of 1:25,000 - are in the hands of the Turkish military and not generally available. The next best thing is Kate Clow's sketch map of the route, which comes with her guidebook. This is useful for general indications but there is very little topographical detail. Though the whole path is waymarked with red and white blazes, in the absence of good maps, it would be hard to follow the route without Kate Clow's guidebook.

Costs
Prices are very low in Turkey. The biggest expenses of a walking trip are the flight and equipment. The average price for a basic en-suite double in a pension is £10. For a meal with drinks in one of the smaller resorts such as Patara or Cirali, where choice is limited to informal eateries, count on spending around £4 per person. Even in Kalkan and Kas, where there are some very good restaurants, it's hard to spend more than £10 a head on a meal. Public transport (see Getting around) is very cheap.

Where to stay
(Prices are for a double room including breakfast unless otherwise indicated)
Most pensions provide a laundry service for a small fee. Note that outside the tourist season (beginning of May to end October), some of the pensions listed below may be closed.

Kalkan
There are about a dozen options in the old town, including the White House (0242 844 37 38, £20-25) and St Nicholas Pension (0242 844 38 55, £10) - just wander downhill towards the harbour from the bus stop and take your pick. You'll also find plenty of hotels to the west of the centre, up on the main coastal road, but these are likely to be blockbooked by tour operators.

Patara
Patara's accommodation options are uphill from the archaeological zone in the hamlet of Gelemis. The Golden Pansiyon (0242 843 51 62, from £7.50) is basic but comfortable with mosquito nets on the beds, fans and a decent menu. The same owners also run the more upmarket Hotel Patara View Point (0242 843 51 84, www.pataraviewpoint.com, £20), which has a pool.

Ucagiz and Kale
Ucagiz, the main base for visiting the underwater ruins of Kekova, offers a handful of options around the harbour, including the clean Ekin Pension (0242 874 20 64; from £8 depending on room).
Alternatively you can stay in nearby Kale (reached on foot or more easily via a 15-minute boat ride from Ucagiz), a tiny hamlet nestled below the Crusader castle of Simena. Bademli Ev (0242 874 21 70, £20), a tiny restored Ottoman house with a wooden balcony and open fireplace, makes a lovely base for a few days' rest.
For good-value boat trips around Kekova, try the friendly Koc family (0242 874 20 74, 0535 282 0366), owners of the Gonul pension and a cafe on the main square. Ask for Mehmet, Mustafa or Huseyin Koc.

Kas
Most of the accommodation in Kas is east of the harbour, opposite Kucukcakil beach. Ferah Hotel (0242 874 20 64, £10) is a friendly middle-of-the-range option with modern bathrooms and air conditioning.

Olympos/Cirali
Olympos and Cirali are the two villages at either end of the 3km-long Olympos beach. Most of the accommodation in Olympos is in raised huts or tree houses. It is very cheap (£3.50 per person for half-board), very basic and popular with overland travellers. The one exception is the distinctly non-budget Olympos Lodge (0242 825 71 71, www.olymposlodge.net, £108 including breakfast and dinner for two), an elegant hotel set in a lush garden filled with palms, bougainvillea and strutting peacocks.
Cirali is more family-oriented than Olympos with several pensions catering to foreign and Turkish visitors of all ages. Generally the further north you head along the waterfront in Cirali, the quieter the pensions. A good option among many similar is Yasemin (0242 825 71 27, £10) on Ulupinar Koyu.

Where to eat
Kalkan
Head to the waterfront where there are several restaurants serving a wide range of Turkish dishes. One of the best is Korsan (£12 for light meal for two including drinks).

Kas
Evy (0242 836 12 53, closed Sunday), on Terzi Sok 2, is both the name of a restaurant and of its charming Provençal owner who serves Asterix-size portions in the garden of her Ottoman house. A meal for two, which included a massive leg of lamb as one of the main courses, came to £20. Book ahead as it's very popular.

What to pack
As you have to camp on many stretches of the route, the key is to pack as little as possible. Ideally keep your pack to under 10 kilos as you will be carrying at least another three kilos in food and water.
The following list is by no means exhaustive but includes the items we found most useful on our walk.
A wide-brimmed sunhat, sunscreen and sunglasses.
A compass.
Three-quarter or full-length trousers. Although it's tempting to wear shorts in the heat, gorse from ankle to knee level on many stretches of the route made exposed legs very uncomfortable. Away from the resorts, you'll also feel very under-dressed in shorts if you are invited into someone's house.
A long-sleeved shirt for protection against the sun during the day and against mosquitoes at night.
Walking boots as opposed to trainers or walking sandals are recommended. The terrain is varied but ankle support is essential on the rocky stretches.
Mosquito repellent.
A medical kit which includes blister kits, plasters, bandages, dressings, antiseptic wipes, rehydration salts, painkillers and anti-histamines.
Wet wipes will come in handy as you may end up camping in a spot with no water.
Water-purifying tablets or iodine, which are best used in a sturdy metal bottle (for example a Zigg bottle).
A bumbag so you can easily reach for sunglasses, money and documents.
A head torch is very practical if you have to set up a tent in the dark.
A lightweight camping stove. It's best to take one that burns meths as this is the most readily available fuel. Ask for "ispirto" in shops selling alcohol in the bigger resorts such as Kas and Kalkan.
It's worth investing in a lightweight sleeping bag as this will probably be the second-heaviest item in your pack after a tent. A silk liner is ideal on its own for hot nights and when it's cool, it acts as an extra insulating layer.
A plastic or tin jug attached to a long length of rope (at least 10 metres) to draw water from wells.
Small gifts. At some point on your walk, you'll probably be invited to share a meal or drink with a local family. You won't be expected to offer a present but a small gift such as a torch, penknife, walkman, watch or packet of English tea or sweets will always be appreciated.

Safety
Many parts of the Lycian Way are far removed from any habitation. Although you may not always have a signal, it's worth carrying a mobile phone for emergencies, as well as the numbers for the Turkish police (155/156), your travel insurance and your embassy or consulate in Ankara. A torch and whistle are also useful for attracting attention.

Shopping
Rugs, carpets, cheap clothes, textiles including throws and table-cloths, jewellery and leather goods are the best buys. Kalkan and Kas both have a wide range of shops. Ucagiz has a couple of good rug and fabric shops. Patara and Olympos are useless - if you end your trip in either, don't count on finding anything more than Turkish delight to take home.

Further information
For general information on Turkey, contact the Turkish Tourist Office (020 7629 7771, www.gototurkey.co.uk).
The Turquoise Coast section of the Rough Guide to Turkey is strong on listings for hotels and places to eat.
The dialling code for Turkey from the UK is 00 90.

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