Reading the ground, geology and human use of the Cretan landscape
50 Rides, 50 Encounters
Reading the Landscape began with a simple idea. I spend a great deal of time riding through the Cretan landscape, often across the same tracks and through the same familiar country. But familiarity can make things invisible.
This series is an attempt to stop occasionally and look more carefully. Each ride provides one encounter with something in the landscape: geology, water, vegetation, archaeology, history or the evidence of people who have lived and worked within it.
There is no predetermined list. The next subject will come from the next ride.
The Encounters
Reading the Landscape — Part 1: The Salt Pans
The old salt pans cut into the coastal limestone reveal a landscape shaped by geology, the sea and generations of human use. The first ride in Reading the Landscape begins at the water’s edge, where the rock still preserves the evidence of an industry that has disappeared.