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The magic mushrooms of Mudurnu

Once more we are travelling west along the North Anatolian Fault, and our destination is the Mudurnu valley- a beautiful, peaceful landscape of mist-filled mountains and serene lakes and valleys created by the fault line.

En route we stop off in Bolu. In the main street we are somewhat surprised to come across street sellers preparing and selling fleshy pink mushrooms, which at first glance look like prawns rather than funghi.

We wind our way up into the mountains, and as we drive through the thick forest around Lake Abant we feel we have to stop off at one of the road-side barbecues and try these strange looking wild mushrooms for ourselves. They’re hot and salty, with a rather strange spongy, firm texture. Not unpleasant, but definitely an acquired taste.

In 1967 an earthquake in Mudurnu valley measuring 7.1m killed 894 people and destroyed 5,000 houses. This was the penultimate earthquake in the series we have followed from east to west starting in 1939 in Erzincan, occuring before the Izmit and Duzce quakes in 1999.