Day One – Illingas Gorge
The temperature is 28 degree Celsius on the Illingas gorge beach at E 024.12465 and N35.20218. This stone beach has tiny waves which are therefore constructive. Most of the beach is man-made in order to protect the area from future gorge floods after the December 2000 devastating flood. The pebbles are consistent sizes which is not in keeping with natural beaches so this is evidence for the beach being man-made. This beach is a 20minute walk from our base in Chora Sfakia on a long road. We then walked up the beach and 3.3km up the gorge.
E024.12904 N35.21328 – this is the reference for our first measurement site 3.3km up the Illingas Gorge. Here there is evidence of the December 2000 flooding in the form of a rock stuck half way up a tree. A picture of this can be found on our flickr link titled picture three -
E024.12907 N35.21224 – this is site two. Here we measured two flows, a main flow and a peak flow. The problem with this site was that it had a smaller channel to the side which would of added to the main and peak flow that we did not measure.
At site three we were unable to get a GPS signal due to the narrow gorge affecting our ability to receive satellite signal. There was little vegetation at this site as the narrow gorge would have funnelled the water and washed away all the vegetation. Due to the narrow channel flow, it was only 3.7m wide, the water would have been concentrated into a smaller space and would have fasted flow speeds compared to the rest of the gorge. Due to this it is likely that there was a higher erosion rate at this site.
Further on down from site three we encountered a wind tunnel effect. The humidity was reduce to 18.5%. Then, when we got to site four our GPS was still not working so we don’t have a reference for this site. The erosion from the flood was evident here in the form of the bark being stripped from the tree, there are photos of this on our flickr link. This part of the gorge was really wide, this would mean that the flood energy would have been dissipated around the whole area causing less damage to the vegetation present.
At site five we were blessed with satellite signal E024.125 and N35.207. This site was interesting as it had well defined banks. These had been eroded as a result of the December 2000 flood. There was dense vegetation above the peak flow which showed where the flood came up to. Next Site six was the man-made road bridge which also acts as a flood relief to channel the waters towards the sea so that the road is not destroyed again. It is made from concrete and reinforced with steal.
Our quote of the day comes from Laura “if you sit down you get stones in your knickers”. The highlight of the day was Emma panicking at a butterfly landing on our, the lowlight would be our clinometer breaking half way down.
Travels!
The Adventure Begins
So the excitement all began with a 4am start. Ok maybe some got up a bit later but as I am a vain person I felt the need to wash my hair.
We all arrive at the bus stop on chancellors way to catch the coach to London Gatwick, our heads filled with the prospect of beautiful weather and the Mannings n equation. The bus journey to Gatwick was non eventful but I did get to know some of my friends a bit better.
Once at Gatwick the excitement had set in, check in went smoothly and we headed to the departure lounge to enjoy duty free shopping!
Emma and I headed straight for McDonalds to have one of their famous “McMuffin” breakfasts whilst Dave and Katie opted for something a bit healthier. After this we explored the departure lounge and tried to win cars. Cars being an Aston Martin and an Audi R8, I wonder what our parents would think if we returned home with one of these! It was then off to Duty Free World and the smell of free Diesel Perfume.
Soon we were “charging” down the runway headed for lush sunshine and some hard work!
We arrive in Chora Sfakia and head straight for the water.
The most memorable moment of the day? This has got to be lying on the beach looking at the stars thinking about how privileged we are to have been able to come to such a beautiful place. We were so lucky we even got to see shooting star and a satellite.
Tomorrow
We are all off to Crete tomorrow and I am racking my brains to make sure that there is nothing that has been overlooked. Hopefully we all have everything we need and will remember to turn up at the right time… it was meet at 9 at the cinema wasn’t it?!
Preparing for Crete
Receiving our airline tickets makes this whole experience a lot more real. We are off to Crete in just 4 days and we are all very excited.
Hello world!
Welcome to the experience of Crete Field Class June 2009 Group 6 through the eyes of four undergraduate students from Reading University.
