Kindra says: Lounging on a beach in Kas aptly named Big Pebble Beach, waiting for the sun to come out again so we can dry. This is our second day off since we started walking the Lycian Way 15 days ago, and we have finally found our rhythm.
When we started, we felt compelled to keep pace with the routes and times suggested in Kate Clow's guidebook-after all, if a 60 year old British woman can do it, should be a breeze for us, right? Normally yes; after a week or so of that, however, we learned a few key things: she was NOT cooking, and therefore finding, her own food, and was NOT finding a campsite, and therefore searching around villages, setting up a tent, making a fire and packing it all away again the next morning after making her own breakfast. Which also means she probably wasn't carrying a tent, cooking supplies, or more than food for lunch and snacks, so her pack was much lighter and she could go longer without feeling as much wear and tear. And it is likely that she didn't do it all day after day, but rather in sections. We started picking up on it when we realized that in a week of hiking and meeting dozens of mostly German hikers, we met not 1 other person doing the whole hike, and not 1 other person only camping. Because most people are doing this for vacation over 2 weeks for about 1/3 the total distance, and want to do the highlights. We have basically no time limitations and want to not just finish the whole thing-we want to enjoy it. We aren't doing what everyone else is doing, so we can't do the 10 miles a day everyone else is doing.
Once we realized that we weren't bound to the guidebook, and we had nobody to prove ourselves to, our pace came naturally-wake up about 8, leave camp around 10, stop for a 2 hour lunch and nap, and hike until just past the next village, coming in about 5. With our new discovery of cooking over a fire instead of our camp stove, it's been an incredibly free and life giving week. Our rhythm is basically awesome.
We have started connecting with God more since finding this new pace, and with each other. We were just asking God to bring people into our lives along the trail that we could have more than a 10 minute relationship with and could share our hearts with. Wouldn't you know it, the very next morning we met a family of 3 from Holland, hiked with them all day, stayed at our very first (and possibly last) pansion with, and spent yesterday afternoon with swimming! We even met up for cards, dessert and wine in the aqueduct just beneath our campsite. We have connected with them so well, and feel wonderfully blessed, rich and full with all that matters.
The calm ocean waters are getting warmer, and we are reveling in how much food is available in supermarkets!! Summer is almost here, and we are basking in it!
We will stay in the area probably another day or so before heading back into the wild mountains, too many rocks to be reasonable, spiky plants that seem specifically designed to hurt you, and mostly the same food from village to village For now, we are here, and we have enough.
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