Here's the question. How can a gorge 20 km long and hundreds of feet deep that carries vast volumes of snow melt every year be virtually invisible until you're inside it? Here's the plan, you turn up at the right time of year (which varies depending where your attitude to 'activity holidays' lies on the scale between mellow and suicidal), pop on some shoes that you don't mind getting wet and start the ascent. Please don't be put off at this point if I'm making it sound scary. It isn't unless you try and battle ice cold torrents at neck height any time before April. I've 'done the gorge', or at least parts of the 4km that are walkable, at several times of year and with varied groups of companions (some bits under some conditions are very difficult unless you're with the sort of friends who don't mind you standing on their heads). If you want a nice relaxing paddle with the odd high step then I'd go for late summer, after the water has warmed up enough to make falling over fun and while there's still enough of it left to fall over into.
If you don't fancy the hike then the 150 metres of walkway you need to traverse to get to the gorge proper is fun for everybody and the clump of tea houses, some of which serve food, which have been craftily inserted there make a great place to chill out for a while. Particularly pleasant on a summer evening when the coach trippers have headed back to their hotel resorts and you can grab a beer that's been sitting in the running water all day.
It's difficult to do this place justice with photos and descriptions. Much, much fun if you're up for it and very nice if you've had a heavy evening the night before and just want to sit around going 'wow'.
You'll probably get to Saklikent Gorge from Fethiye. The easiest thing to do is to pick up a dolmus(minibus) from the town's dolmus terminal or from the bus station. You can hail a passing dolmus from anywhere on the road leaving town and you should be there in under 40 minutes. The route takes you past a sideroad marked for Tlos, one of the Lycian cities in the Xanthos Valley, you may want to check that out. After spending some time at the gorge minibuses will take you back into town, from where you can connect with similar services to Oludeniz or Hisaronu. As is common along the coast these services diminish in frequency as evening draws in and there's little to keep you here after it get's dark. If you don't fancy going back to Fethiye you'll be a little stuck without your own transport. The nearest centre of tourist orientated accommodation is Patara and at present the direct route from Saklikent is a gravel road. You might be able to hitch but there's little if anything in the way of public transport south from the valley.
There's no accommodation at Saklikent, what you will find are a clump of basic restaurants inside the gorge itself. They'll serve you with a light lunch or supper at reasonable prices and provide a variety of beverages, all chilled in the waters of the river that runs under the platforms you'll want to eat on. I've always assumed that these places get washed away every winter and rebuilt, haven't quite worked it out yet. The car park area is a little scruffy but cold drinks are available. Little in the way of souvenir merchants or even postcard stalls most of the year.
Merv!
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