Feeding strawberries to wild boar on the Aegean Sea - not in my wildest dreams!

May 11, 2016  Wednesday

The beautiful Aegean with Greek islands in view

We drove through a small town on our way to the Milli Park, Turkey's name for national park. Its official name is Dilek Peninsula Great Menderes Delta National Park.  We stopped at a modern market and began looking for items for our picnic.  We found a nice young man behind the counter, whom I began calling Mr. Chicago because he had spent 6 months studying in Chicago and had visited a number of places in the US, including Yellowstone National Park.  He helped us select some cheese, turkey baloney with pistachios and kaymak – a type of Turkish clotted cream.  We bought a loaf of bread, some plastic cups, plates, napkins, orange Fanta and local strawberries.  The total cost for a meal that would feed 4 of us was less than 50  TLira (about $16).

Picnic! Michael and our guide, Yavuz

As we drove to the park, we saw the beautiful Aegean – the water is crystal clear and a lovely lightest blue near the shore from the light colored rocks that form the beach.  The Greek islands are very close.  The nearest is Samos, which Mr. Bekir said is only about 1 Km from this peninsula.  National parks are a somewhat new phenomenon in Turkey, having developed over the last two decades  There are now almost 50 of them and they tend to be small – about 5 to 10K acres – and you can’t spend the night at any of them.  There is a daily charge of 15 TL per car for use.

We found a nice spot right near the water’s edge with a picnic table under the shade of pine tress.  Mr. Bekir found some newspaper to serve as a table cloth and we spread out our feast.  Michael and I went down to the water to pick up some stones – they are all flat and many are white quartz or perhaps marble.

Greek island Samos is very close to the Dilek Peninsula

Michael walking the beach at Dilek Peninsula national park

Hmmm, a picnic - great idea guys!

Mr. Bekir had said we might see some pigs, which roam wild in the park.  And indeed we did -  a group of more than 20 wild boar came running by to see if there was any food.  A large and rather protective mama boar with about 20 piglets, as well as three other mid size adults.  No males, which was fine with me, as the females were scary enough.  We kept the picnic tables between us and tossed the rest of our strawberries over to the baby pigs.  I stood on the picnic table to take a few photos, but to keep some distance.

Wild boars roam free, foraging for food left by humans

Baby piglets enjoying our left over strawberries

We left the park at about 4 PM, as we needed to make it back to Nisanyan for our cooking lesson by 5:30.  But before we did, we drove up to Kusadasi to see the harbor.  It’s a very pretty seaside town, with a fort, a marina for sailing boats and a dock that can accommodate several large cruise ships.  We drove past Yavuz’s apartment area and also saw where he went to college for his degree to qualify for exams as licensed travel guide.  We enjoyed our 2 days with Yavuz and hope we might return to visit the areas around the Black Sea he so vividly described.

Castle and fortress in Kusadasi, on Pidgeon Island

View of the harbor in Kusadasi

Thanks, Yavuz, for a terrific two days around Ephesus, Selcuk and region