Tuesday 5 February 2013

The Carian Trail



The Carian Trail was officially opened this week. A 800 km route through the counties of Muğla and Aydin, this trail passes through villages, countryside and mountains and aims to spread some of the income from tourism presently concentrated on the coast, to the inland areas.  As you can see from the Karia Yolu map above, Bodrum is not on the main route, but it does branch off to encompass our Carian history and take in  Theangela and Ceremos. 


The finished way will have international path signs every 50 metres and 220 signposts  to keep travellers from getting lost.  It's an exciting project which has been relatively low key up to now.  A guide book to the route is being published and should be available in 2 months. 
This initiative is presumably inspired by the The Lycian Way made by Kate Clow, which runs along the Mediterranean Coast.  In the past couple of months,  part of the Lycian Way has been bulldozed to make way for a large hotel, so finger-crossed the Carian Way doesn't open up our so far unspoilt interior to the developers diggers. 
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28 comments:

  1. Jane and Lance Hattatt5 February 2013 at 11:31

    Hello:
    One cannot help but be encouraged, as you must be, by initiatives of this kind which go some way towards helping struggling economies. It all sounds most exciting.

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    1. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 20:51

      I'm looking forward to the guide book coming out.

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  2. Julia5 February 2013 at 13:17

    Definitely fingers crossed for the Carian Trail. Looks amazing. Thanks for this as we had no idea about. We have heard the Lycian Way is being extended to start from Marmaris rather than Fethiye...which could pave the way for these two paths to join up, maybe? Interesting. :)

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    1. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 20:52

      Lycians and Carians must have overlapped somewhere

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  3. Unknown5 February 2013 at 18:44

    Very interesting!

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  4. Moe5 February 2013 at 19:26

    Oh! I would love to do this someday!

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  5. Helen Devries5 February 2013 at 23:31

    I hope that the endeavour to spread the tourist money more widely works....but not so much that the bulldozers move in.

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    1. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 20:52

      I hope this results in village coffee shops being reopened

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  6. surmanfenn@gmail.com5 February 2013 at 23:42

    . . the present Provincial Governor (Vali) says he is in favour of this type of development and we should loudly applaud - literally!!!!! But governors change every few years and I well remember one from a few years ago who considered eco-tourism that he supported and promoted to be the hunting of chamois (mountain goats), pigs and other creatures to be the direction that alternative tourism needed to take.

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    1. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 20:54

      Yes, I remember the pig shooting drive. The last thing we need in villages is more guns.

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  7. Jack Scott6 February 2013 at 00:06

    The BBC listed the Lycian Way as one of the 30 best walks in the world. I've even walked a part of it (well, a couple of hundred metres - you know me). To cut it in two for yet another hotel is sheer vandalism and economic madness. Let's hope for better things for the Carian Trail.

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    1. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 20:55

      I hope you manage 200 metres of the Carian Trail too.

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  8. Senior Dogs Abroad6 February 2013 at 10:01

    We're heartened to learn of this initiative. What a great way to learn about history and enjoy Turkey's beauty at the same time. The hardest part is protecting it from the greed-meisters!

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    1. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 20:55

      Once opened - these tracks are a bit like Pandora's box.

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  9. Karen6 February 2013 at 12:14

    Very cool. How fun to read of a low-cost, low-polluting way to increase revenue in the area.

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    1. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 20:56

      Have you seen any advertising about it in Istanbul?

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  10. Dee6 February 2013 at 23:10

    Dear Bodrum, I hope that one day you will begin a series of posts that take us along the 800 km route so we can see the towns and villages and scenery and meet the people. Peace.

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  11. BacktoBodrum6 February 2013 at 23:12

    Now theres an idea

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  12. Anonymous8 February 2013 at 00:16

    It does look amazing...

    So many places we have yet to see!

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    1. BacktoBodrum9 February 2013 at 21:24

      As yet, I don't know if the route will follow roads or paths - you may be able to do it on the bike.

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  13. Erica (Irene)9 February 2013 at 18:59

    Looks like an amazing route....something interesting to see every km. Would love to do this route one day....thanks for sharing this most interesting post, I always learn something new on your Blog.
    :-)

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    1. BacktoBodrum9 February 2013 at 21:24

      Hope you get to do a bit of it when you are here.

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  14. hotels around att park12 February 2013 at 16:29

    Fabulous post! I would love to do that one day. :)

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  15. Unknown12 February 2013 at 18:26

    Yes, it's great news, isn't it! I have just read about it somewhere else but can't remember where. You'll just have to do it now, BtoB, and then tell us all about it!

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    1. BacktoBodrum12 February 2013 at 18:53

      As soon as the guide book is out, I'll be on the trail.

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