CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Fethiye it runs 153 km to Demre; allow about 2 h 25 of riding. The stops in between: Kalkan and Kas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 28 km this is Turkey Lycian Coast D400, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Above the harbour at Fethiye the cliff has been carved into a Greek temple front. The tomb that Lycian craftsmen cut for a man called Amyntas in the fourth century BC stares out over the bay from about halfway up the rock, and once you have seen it you start spotting smaller tombs in the hillside all around the town. Fethiye sits on the site of ancient Telmessos, at the western end of the Lycian coast, where the pine-covered Taurus mountains drop into a wide bay full of islets. An earthquake in 1957 flattened much of the town, so the centre is modern, but the setting is lovely: a long waterfront with boats going out to the islands, and restaurants where you can pick your fish from the ice.
Read the complete Fethiye write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fethiye is where the day begins. Next is Kalkan.
Kalkan used to be Kalamaki, a Greek village, and the whitewashed houses that tumble down its hillside to a small harbour are the legacy of that older life. In 1923, when Greece and Turkey exchanged their populations, the Greek families left and Turkish families from the islands and mainland arrived to take their place, and the town's name was changed to a Turkish one that means shield, perhaps for the rock face behind it. Today Kalkan is a smart, small resort of about three thousand people, with narrow lanes, bougainvillea over the doorways and roof terraces that look out over the Mediterranean toward the sunset.
Read the complete Kalkan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalkan comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kas.
Kaş is a harbour town with a past that sits in plain sight. In the middle of the old town, carved into the rock above the road, is a Lycian tomb, a stone tomb cut like a house with columns and a pediment, some two thousand four hundred years old, and above the town on the hill there are more. The Lycians, a people of southwest Anatolia who spoke their own language and built their own cities, chose to bury their kings in high places so that eagles could carry their spirits away, or so the story goes. The Greek name of the town was Antiphellos, and there is a small Hellenistic theatre by the sea, which still looks over the water as it did in antiquity.
Read the complete Kas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Kas. Next is Demre.
Demre is the modern town on the site of Myra, one of the great cities of ancient Lycia, and it sits in a flat, fertile plain between the Taurus mountains and the Mediterranean on the south coast of Turkey. A great cluster of tomb houses, cut into the cliff face above the old city around the fourth century BC, looks down on the town, their stone fronts carved to imitate wooden buildings, and a large Roman theatre stands at their foot. It is one of the most impressive ancient sites on the coast, and visitors are often surprised at how few people are there.
Read the complete Demre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Demre closes the day.
Fethiye → Kalkan is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalkan → Kas is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kas → Demre is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.