“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Carian Hinterland is one of the five sections of the 800-km-long Carian Trail that runs through Southwestern Turkey.
If you like the idea of combining hiking and Turkey and you have some two weeks of time, this is our tip: hike the Carian Hinterland. Depending on your level of fitness and speed it may take 8-13 days (we took 11).
Simply fly to Bodrum, take a bus to Bozalan and hit the trail.
Hiking the Carian Hinterland
The Carian Hinterland section runs across the Latmos Mountains and for the large part is a very little-visited region. Hospitality abounds, the trail traverses dramatic landscapes and passes some fantastic historic sites. For hikers who like to combine wilderness and culture, this trail is for you.
Below are impressions from my diary. Distances are approximate; we don’t track the trail but refer to the kilometers given in the Carian Trail Guidebook). Also, this section is so long that I divide it up into two blog posts. Here is part 1, day 1 – 5. (If you just want the practical information, scroll down to the bottom of this page).

01 Bozalan – Karacahisar
18,7 kms
The trail starts with a steep climb up the winding alleys of Bozalan village, which we had passed on our Ceramic Gulf section to Bodrum only a few days earlier. A man passes by with his horse packed with gear. Dogs bark from gardens, often chained (poor creatures), sometimes not. They can make a lot of noise but are never aggressive.
We hit the countryside, around the hillside and take in views. The last stretch zigzags up an impressive rock corridor through a cleft in the cliff. It takes us right into the forest, its ground carpeted in flowering rock roses. It’s gorgeous. The soft pine needles are kind to our feet – mine wearing new shoes, bought in Bodrum.


02 Karacahisar – Gökçeler
15 kms
Here, the GPX trail partly differs from the Carian Trail Guidebook. We follow the GPS and it guides us through a gorgeous, wild canyon. The trail requires two river crossings for which we take off our shoes and go barefoot. The current is strong.
In Gökceler’s ‘kahve’ – teahouse – we ask if they know a place to camp. This seems to become a village decision and the verdict is the schoolyard (there is a public toilet outside the mosque). We pitch our tent and return to the kahve for more tea because the temps are plummeting and hovering just above 0 degrees Celsius.
The owner has meanwhile arrived. “Sleep inside, much warmer,” he insists and asks somebody to fetch more wood for the stove while he lavishes us with tea.
We take the tent down and roll out our mats in the kahve instead, grateful not having to pack up in freezing temps the next morning.


03 Gökçeler – Milas
16 kms
As we exit a village, we pass the point where farmers deliver their cows’ milk. It is rush hour. The milk is brought in metal containers of 20 or 40 liters, transported in the bed of a pickup truck or on a tractor. The lid is taken off, the heat steaming up from the still-warm liquid, the milk is poured into a basin connected to the electronic weighing scale. The amount delivered is registered by hand in a large logbook and the farmers are off again.
We continue on country roads that cut through olive groves and walled fields planted with wheat. Clearly pesticides are used – no flowers to be seen. At last we head into the forest for a nice climb uphill through pine trees. The trail meanders around the hillside, going down to cross a water stream with cascades. The waterway is hidden under tangled vegetation which makes us scramble underneath, trying not to get caught in the vines.


04 Milas – Kargicak
21,4 kms
The ancient ruins of Labraunda encompass a number of civilizations and is a beautiful site more than worth a visit. The site is vast, containing parts of temples, ‘androns’, remains of columns, paved stairs, etc. It is hard to express in words how impressive it is; Labraunda requires photos.
”The site was more a sacred precinct than the city and was dedicated to the cult of the Carian Zeus, ‘Zeus Labraundos’. From the 4th century BCE coins have been found with Zeus depicted wearing robes and carrying the ‘labrys’ – double-headed ax. The site was connected to Mylasa by a 14-km-long sacred road made of paved stone blocks, also continuing eastwards to the city of Alinda.” (From: Carian Trail Guidebook)
Additional Reading – All Articles on the Carian Trail
- Our Gear List for the Carian Trail
- Visiting Bayir on the Carian Trail
- Hiking the Bozburun Peninsula
- Hiking the Ceramic Gulf
- Turkish Hospitality on the Carian Trail
- Hiking the Carian Hinterland, part 2
- Hiking the Mugla Environs
- Hiking the Datça Peninsula, part 1
- Hiking the Datça Peninsula, part 2


Why walk on to a village if you can wild camp? We settle for a spot – not as flat as Coen would have liked but next to a stream and with enough wood for a fire.
Over the past weeks we have settled into a wild-camp routine, sort of. Coen sets up the tent (always his priority), I take a bath (my priority), he inflates the mattresses, I gather firewood, he takes his bath, I organize the rest of our stuff inside the tent and sort out the food for tonight and tomorrow.
At 7 it is getting dark. We cherish a quiet evening around the fire, building it up in size and heat. Clear sky, lots of stars visible as the moon had set very early.
05 Kargicak – Ketendere
16 kms
As we sit on a veranda of an empty government building enjoying our lunch, the blue sky turns grey and ominous. What are we going to do? Stay or move on? Ketendere is another two-hour walk but it does have a kahve where we may find a shelter for the forecasted rainstorm.
An elderly couple arrives, climbing the staircase with difficulty – especially old village women sometimes walk at a 90-degree angle from the hips. They love to talk but we don’t get far, not sharing their language. However, we do understand they are inviting us for tea.
Their home is around the corner. Downstairs they keep chickens and a cow. We walk up the stairs and take off our shoes on the veranda. A small, meticulously kept kitchen and living-cum-dining-cum-sleeping room are next to each other.
Thus we share tea with biscuits with Fatma and her husband Mustafa. It is served on the floor, on a table-cloth and we sit around it, our feet folded underneath us. As we sip the hot liquid, the heavens explode to throw all their water on Planet Earth for ten minutes before closing the taps again. Are we lucky to be inside!
The sky clears, giving us a window long enough to walk to Ketendere before the heavens turn open those taps for the second time.
Read More: Hiking the Carian Hinterland part 2


Practical Information on Hiking the Carian Hinterland part 1
- Water: Throughout the trail are enough water sources, whether streams, fountains, springs, cisterns or local homes. When necessary we added water purification tablets. Do note we hiked early March, later in the season water sources may dry up.
- Food: You’ll daily come across a village with a teahouse and small shop.
- Gas: Milas is a particularly good town to stock up (plus it’s a very pleasant place to be with an old town worth wandering about and some sites to check out). In the old town are an Aygas and a Likidgaz shop where you can find small gas canisters and there are various Migros supermarkets.
- Time: Calculate time for sightseeing (if you love old stones): Beçin, Milas, and Labraunda are all worth visiting.
- Trail: As mentioned in the text above, day 2 is different on the GPX trail than in the book.
- Accommodation/Camping: Wild camping, like everywhere on the Carian Trail, is easy. There are hotels in Milas and if you need other accommodation along the way, ask the villagers. They are very helpful. We were invited into peoples’ homes and once slept on the floor in a teahouse (as mentioned in the text above).

Practical Information on the Carian Trail
- The Carian Trail is an 850-km-long hike in Southwestern Turkey and Turkey’s Longest Coastal Hiking Trail. Find all info here.
- We use the Carian Trail Guidebook, by Yurus Özdemir, Altay Özcan, and Dean Livesley. Find it here. Additionally, we used Insight Guides Turkey
. We are hiking without laptops. The pictures are snapshots I took on my iPhone and new on this hike is a foldable keyboard. I’m super happy with it despite it adding to the weight I carry.- This is our gear list with what we’ve packed for the Carian Trail.
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Photos by Coen Wubbels. Follow our overland journey on Landcruisingadventure.com or on Instagram.
Thanks for this excellent info. Much appreciated.
* Do you think there a particular reason to walk the Hinterland section South to North (as you have done) or would North to South be just as good?
* Did you have any long stretches without water or where it was difficult to find?
* What was the longest period for which you had no food resupply?
* You appear to have done this in Early/Mid March 2019. What were the average temperatures day and night in the higher sections? You mention 0ºC at one point. Would that be a normal night time temperature in the hills at this time of year?
I walked the Lycian Way in Mid March-Mid April 2018, so I have some idea of the conditions, but that was mostly lower down.
Thanks!
Hey there, my answers:
* Both ways work. We were simply coming from the southern sections of the Carian Trail so logistically it made sense for us.
* Water: I think the only a bit trickier part was the far end on the Bozburun Peninsula, as far as I remember. We generally used 2 liters per person for the hike and camped at or nearby a water source. The Carian Trail hike book that I mention under the practical information section is useful to have for this!
* Food: I think at the most 4 days.
* We started the Carian Trail from Feb 1 – Apr 4 with lots of days in between either for rest of because of bad weather (because we had enough time, we rather waited out the rainy days). Frankly I don’t remember the temps at all. As you can see in the pics we hiked in our blouse. In the evening we wore merino base layers and a down jacket and have a good down sleeping bag. There aren’t that many nights high up in the mountains anyway.
Hope that helps. Have fun! Do you plan to walk the whole trail or specifically the Hinterland section?
Thank you for those answers but even more for the inspiration to do this hike. I really enjoyed it.
I am writing this from Milas after completing a substantial portion (250 km) of the Hinterland Trail.
The logistics worked out like this:
Walked to the Acropolis (the Start) from Bodrum and back on the CT as a day walk. The walk out was rather more attractive than the walk back on the actual trail. However the latter did pass a couple of important features (a Greek Theatre and a Gateway to Halicarnassus).
Due to lack of information on any bus to Bozalan I decided to walk there instead. A fine coastal walk but with plenty of up and down. Arguably more even than some days in the hills.
From Bozalan I walked along the Hinterland trail as far as Bafa Lake.
From the lake I returned to Milas by a combination of walking, hitchhiking and a Dolmus from Bafa village.
This took 15 days at a fairly leisurely pace. The weather was ideal with only a small sprinkle of rain on one night. However after finishing the trail I observed quite stormy wet weather in the hills for the following four days.
I have now been in hotel in Milas for two months under lockdown. Not quite what I planned but, as you might expect, I am being well looked after by the very helpful and friendly staff.
While hiking the trail I navigated almost entirely using my Apple Watch into which I had loaded the track file. I also had the route in maps.me on my iPhone, but only really used this for an overview or when I wished to record a waypoint.
The GPX file I downloaded from the Carian Trail website was about 99% accurate. Really very impressive. I recorded my actual track and my campsites as well as all the water points that I encountered. I have put all of these onto a Google map that I am developing which will eventually be incorporated into my blog for this Trail.
I hope I will be able to return next year or the year after to complete this wonderful trek.
Thanks very much for your help.
Sounds like a great hike. Sorry to hear about the lockdown… One day we will return to Turkey for more wonderful hikes. There are so many!
Hi, Thanks for the great trip report. We only have about 6 days and I’m wondering which of the first or second section (based on your write up) of the Hinterland trail would be the best!
Thanks