This night was quite warm and free of rain - and in the morning a clear blue sky waited for me outside the tent. Conditions like these of course help a lot with packing, so with a good mood I start hiking and enjoying the sunshine.

Always along the coast, the path leads me uphill to a nice cliff with a good view down to the bay of Ciftlik with an island near to the coast and, unfortunately, a holiday resort. Still a very enjoyable spot for a break and looking out over the sea. For my mobile not so much though, the sun shining right on the lense and making the pictures look worse than they do already anyway.

Further up the hill, the way leading me now inland to the village of Bayir, I meet some hungry-looking dogs chained to a tree. Poor guys. At least they don't attack like the usual free-running shepherds' dogs, especially in the Greek mountains. I pass through the ruins of Syrna, at least that's what my guidebook tells me - in reality there's not much more to see than a bunch or worked rocks scattered between brushes and flowers. As I reach the last hill, a wide view over the fertile valley around Bayir and across it to the other side of the peninsula opens up. This will hopefully be where I will pass again in a few days.

Down to the village, the area is filled with buzzing bees and flowering trees, just stunning. So far I have visited Turkey only in high summer, I didn't expect it to be that green and alive.

The village square was very busy due to some election campaign going on. Just bought some stuff in the tiny shop and hurried off again, so much noise. And all that just for some local elections, unbelievable. After following the street to leading me south up into the hills again, I finally branch off into a quiet side valley with some trees for shadow. As there is no better place to be found, I have to content myself with sitting in the shadow of a medium-sized olive tree for an hour or two to avoid the worst of the sun.. It's only March, but still my nose is a quite a bit sunburnt already...

Here, it gets kind of annoying to hike again. The whole area consists of fields separated by stone walls, the path of course leads through openings in between - only most of the openings were filled head-high with cur thorny brushes, probably to contain cows and sheep in their designated areas. So beside some usual wayfinding difficulties, I also had to climb some walls with my heavy backpack, not always easy to do.

At some point I reach the "main street" again, on which I'm supposed to continue hiking south. A few kilometers further, another path goes off to the right, leading nearer to the coast and further uphill. Being unsure of where to branch off, I'm happy to find a shepherd and his wife at a hut with "TAXI" written on top (no idea how that ended up there), who seem to know the Carian Way or its waymarks and show me where to continue. Also, they have a really terrifying dog barking at me, only held back on its collar by the nice shepherd. Made me walk a bit faster for a few minutes, who knows how soon he's gonna let the dog go...

As it is quite late already, I continue just a bit further up through a slippery and muddy section until it gets flat again, where I find some nice grassy spots and set up my tent for the night.