Lake and Gorge Walks

Near to Ierapetra on the south coast is Brahmia reservoir, created to provide a good water supply for the many greenhouses in the area.  Now the huge wetland provides a home for many different birds and animals, and is a stopping off point for many more migratory birds.

1^st May, is a Bank Holiday here in Crete when it is traditional to collect a posy of wild flowers so we decided to collect ours during a walk around the reservoir, and after so many mountain walks it made a change to enjoy a relatively flat and easy path.

Water has obviously made an important contribution to the local environment to the local area over many years.  The photo below is of an old water mill.  Water ran along the channel to drop down at the end with enough force to turn the grindstones.

At one point we spent ages staring at a rock to identify the creature basking in the sun, and thanks to Alan’s binoculars saw it was a terrapin.  

Shame I don’t have a powerful enough zoom on my camera but you can just abut make out the shape.  We might have gone closer to investigate except a huge Alsatian puppy came bounding along and wanted to lick us to death!

In the event there were less flowers around the lake than we expected but a quick stop on the road between Prina and Kroustas ‘delivered’ and now my May Day posy hangs outside the front door. 

Similar bunches and wreaths are on now houses throughout the village.  By midsummer’s day, they will all be dry, crispy and ready to be burnt as part of an ancient fertility rite where traditionally young women jumped over their burning flowers.  The church has obviously given up the fight against this paganism and embraced the tradition, so each year a different church plays host to the ceremony where children play ‘dare’ and leap the flames.  We'll be in Crete to see this, so I’ll make a note of events.

To develop the theme of walking in different terrain we decided to pay another visit to Kritsa Gorge.  This time we decided to take the path around the hill towards Lato, and then drop into the gorge at the 1^st exit.  When out walking in Cretan countryside it is not unusual to find the path barred by a rusty metal fence, and in the past we thought this meant go no further.  However, it is to control livestock not people, and there is usually a metal ‘tie’ that can be untwisted to gain access.  On this particular path there’s no doubt that it is OK to pass through as there is a helpful sign:

Once in the gorge its high sides protected us from the wind that had been gusting, so we ‘strolled’ downhill enjoying splendid isolation with warm sun, birdsong, and invisible bleating goats.  Often when we walk in the gorge we enter at the same point and walk upwards, so we had forgotten just how narrow it gets towards the bottom.

Here it was like going down a drain created by tonnes of water crashing through over the millennia. 

One of the reasons we had seldom used this part of the gorge was that the huge boulders are hard to clamber over, especially when there is still water lying at the bottom, but now some kind soul has fixed metal rungs into the rock to make things easier.

Last year I shared a description of the Kritsa Gorge with Beryl Derby, (author of the great book about Spinalonga called Yiannis), as she wanted characters in her latest book Tassos to walk up through the gorge. I recently bought a copy of the book and to my surprise, saw a note of thanks to me in her acknowledgements.  If you are interested in finding out more about Beryl's books they are all on sale at the Eklektos bookshop in Elounda or available via www.beryldarbybooks.com.