You won’t be able to thank “Kaptan June” in person, although you’ll feel like hugging her by the end of your time in Dalyan. She died from Covid three years ago, aged 100, and a memorial has been erected in her honour in the Kaunos Tea Garden area of the town. There you will find the Essex-born conservationist, better known outside this beautiful corner of Mugla Province as June Haimoff MBE, standing sentinel over a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta).
The tribute is in recognition of her work from the mid-1980s onwards to preserve the endangered species (and more besides), and if you want to see why she was so motivated, and how her efforts over 35 years have been rewarded, just saunter to the bank of Turkey‘s Dalyan River, which runs behind her statue. Before long, one or two of these large, graceful creatures will break the surface on the journey to or from Iztuzu Beach.
