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Wednesday 17th June 2009
Ilingas Gorge

After our first, hot nights sleep in our new accommodation we began the day with local bread and honey for breakfast over looking the sea…what more can one ask for!? Afterwards we bought fresh filled baguettes from the local bakery which we were going to eat for our lunch.

At 9.45am we were all eagar and ready to start our day at the Ilingas gorge. As typical geographers our day commenced using our GPS receiver to guide us to our predetermination location which was located on Ilingas beach, latitude 35.2 and longtitude 24.12. After a brief period of confusion of how to reach this destination, all the geographers pulled together and followed the saying ‘strength in numbers!’ After managing to find the coastal road, we finally got there after about 20minutes.

All us geographers walking to Ilingas beach

On arrival to Ilingas beach we were met by our trip leaders and were briefed on the days tasks.

Our aims of the day were:

• To calculate the peak discharge of the 5^th December 2000 flood. We did this by taking various measurements and making observations.
• To assess the impacts of the flood on the aesthetics of the Ilingas gorge.
• Asses the variations and the profile of the Ilingas gorge.

We left the beach and headed for a difficult climb up the Ilingas gorge to approximately half way (3.5km). The terrain was very variable but mainly loose, uneven and difficult underfoot. We all soon felt our walking boots were a very good purchase! During the day we hopped between spots of shade as the temperatures gradually increased as the day went on.

Material on the gorge floor

On the way up the gorge it was hard to focus on the surroundings as we were trying to negotiate the difficult terrain. However, after we covered certain amounts of the gorge we stopped for much deserved water breaks where we thought about what we were going to measure on the way down from the gorge.

On the way down the gorge we stopped at 7 sites where we took a series of measurements including:

• Temperature and humidity readings for both the air and ground.
• The latitude and longitude readings stating our location (we experienced some problems doing this at certain places in the gorge due to a lack of signal).
• General observations including vegetation.
• Wetted perimeter.
• Cross sectional area.
• Diameter of random clast samples.
• Slope gradient.
• Maas and Macklin 2000’s classification system to determine how active the gorge was.
• The height of flood – we did this using a clinometer.
• Elevation readings.
• Indication of flood activty on bark of trees.

Throughout the day we took plenty of photographs and made sketches to accompany our field notebooks.

Cheryl and Laura working in their field note books

When we reached the bottom of the gorge we completed our days activity by walking back along the coastal route back to our hotel. It was not long before we were all in the sea cooling off!!

Ilingas Gorge

Overall, our day was very successful and we all felt like we had made an achievement as we managed to climb the gorge despite the high temperature. However, we did encounter a few minor problems throughout the day. Firstly, the GPS signal up the gorge was weak due to lack of satellites available. Secondly, the hydro-thermometer began to falter from site 4 onwards. Also, sometimes it was hard to judge the maximum flood level using striations on the gorge sides and vegetation. On top of all this, one group member fell over (while filming the rest of the group working in the gorge!), another lost the sole of their walking boot and another was stung by a wasp!!

In the evening we ate at one of the village tavernas. After our meal were were given some free Raki from the locals. Raki is an alcoholic spirit which is produced in Crete.

After a hard days work it was time for bed!

All in all, a good day was had by all!!