Time : allow 2 and a half hours.
Grade : Mostly easy but slightly overgrown /rocky in places on the path back from Sandima and a small barbwire fence to negotiate.
Suggest you do this walk on a Thursday when it is market day in Yalikavak. You can then visit the market and buy a few items for a picnic before you set off. The walk starts just by the market.
The Walk: From the dolmus station and car park (close to the market) look for a large Turkish flag and a large statue of Ataturk holding a child beside a big mosaic circle. Take the second road clockwise from the statue and bear right when the road divides after 150 metres. In a few metres you’ll pass and entrance to the market on your left but continue straight on along Kayacik Caddesi, signposted ‘Sandima’.
Houses and orange groves line the small road. After 5-10 minutes a dry river bed appears on your left. Continue straight ahead (alongside the river bed) gently uphill.
After a further 10 minutes, where a small road comes in from the right, a signpost points you straight ahead to Sandima. When the paved track turns left (signposted Ada Evleri), keep straight ahead up an unmade road. After a few minutes there is a white domed water cistern (sarnac) to your left in a dip. After another 10 minutes you pass eucalyptus trees and a drinking trough on your left. In another 200 metres a large open area appears to the left of the path and there is a large white drinking fountain and a small cemetery enclosed by a stone wall. You have reached Sandima.
Take time to explore the village of Sandima by continuing straight ahead at the water fountain.
To return to Yalikavak take the path downhill by the drinking fountain, with the graveyard on your right. As the cemetery wall turns right continue straight on. Keep to the left of a short stretch of wall. As this wall makes a right turn take the small path to your left through the gorse. After 1 minute it bends back on itself and crosses the river bed. The path continues slightly downhill on the other side of the gorge. Continue along this sunken path and at a T junction turn right downhill (wall with metal mesh fence on your left). After 5 minutes the path circles a massive boulder and continues downhill (wall with metal fence still on your left) and the path is again sunken and cobbled with a wall to each side. The path is clear but rocky in places as it winds downhill.
Next to an old well, either continue on the sunken path or go into a field and keep to the right edge, beside the sunken path, rejoining the path at a gate after 200 metres, just before a stone outhouse. You soon pass under a water pipe with a house with a large pool on your right. After a few metres, as paths merge beside a large wall to your right, keep left and climb over a small stone wall (with an olive tree to the right of it). Follow the path to your right. Dry river bed on your right.
In 4 minutes cross a small barbed wire fence* to the right of a new development (* which a farmer has put across the path(!) With care it is easy to manipulate. At the end of the development the road becomes tarmacked. Ignore a left turn and continue straight ahead to Yalikavak. After 10 minutes you reach a T junction. Turn right and you are back on the road you started on. In a few minutes you will reach the car park.
This entry was posted in Activities and tagged Activities, Bodrum, Bodrum Peninsula, Gumusluk, Holidays, Travel, Turkey, Vacations, Villa rental, walks, Yalikavak by Paul Smith. Bookmark the permalink.