Millipark

---

Today has been a blast of fun. Went riding, through Kusadasi and some smaller villages to the Millipark, (National Park). The ride there and back was pretty good, then we got to the park. A small winding paved road, with mountains on one side and the sea on the other, the whole area heavily forested with pines, oak, plane, fig, olive and various other trees, frequently with vines growing between them. It really was vastly beautiful. We stopped a couple of times so I could better take in the scenery, difficult when riding. One stop was near a small beach backed by pine forest, the other at a walking trail heading into the mountains up what becomes a narrow gorge. Got a couple of photos, one of Hilary with the bike, and one in the gorge looking up. It is hard to give a sense of scale on the picture looking up, but the top of those cliffs are almost a mile high and we were close to sea level.

The bike is really dirty now, oh well. The dirt can be cleaned off when we get home. Much of the riding has been very hot and dusty, well all of it from when we got to Greece has been at 30C and above. The leathers have not been too unbearable, left open helps, but this risks disputes with flying insects. What I though yesterday was a wasp, was probably not given the size of the red itchy bit. More likely a hornet. Riding gloves went in Greece, sun protection on my hands has been a far better plan. The riding has been great, and there is lots more to come.

Back in Selcuk we haven't really done much. We did manage to book ourselves onto the ferry from Cesme to Ancona - although this does still await confirmation we then just strolled around a bit, sat at a in a tea garden watching baby ducks then found somewhere that sold seriously good ayran - different from the usual brand but no more expensive.

The Millipark was good. Ashley says he's never had to wait for a tortoise to cross the road before. It did take quite a long time. Oddly, we saw less wildlife there than we have elsewhere although there are supposed to be wild boar and civets and lynxes and wild cats i the millipark along with many other animals. The sign says there might be anatolian leopards although these are believed to be extinct. I guess if there are any left they might be hiding in the Millipark. We saw plenty of bugs and midges...

---

Photos

Canyon - walking trail
Those cliffs are about 1,500 metres high

Comments

[chucktx]

nice
that canyon walking trail looks wonderful... actually looks cool in temps..... chuck