Victoria insisted that we go hiking since the day was nice, and again we had an adventure! We picked Bramiana Lake as a nearby easy hike. It turned out to be less easy than advertised but memorable.
Bramiana Dam/Lake doesn’t have a wikipedia entry, but after some googling I discovered that it was made in 1986. It is located in the southern part of Crete which is known for farming. We drove past dozens and dozens of greenhouses which are mostly for tomatoes. The dam itself looks much newer, and there was a still-standing stone building I saw in one part of the lake.
The local soil, while still incredibly rocky, looks like you could grow something in it, which explains the local farming (the soil where we are is very thin and looks nothing like topsoil.) The amount of soil erosion was incredible.
I suppose this is a small dam in the big scheme of things……but I was amazed when I got close and looked. The picture below is from the road going across the top of the dam. I would guess it was 150m high and the rocks are piled at around a 30 degree angle. The length is about 400m.
How long would it take you, and with how many trucks of stone to make a structure 400m long, 150m high with 30 degree slopes on each end? I could try to do the math but it is a lot of trucks and a long time.
The reason for the dam is obvious: farming needs freshwater and Crete is very dry. We walked past one of the greenhouses:
It was 16 degrees out, but the air pouring out of the opening on the side was at least 35 degrees and very moist.
It is fascinating to see plants and animals here that are very close to what you are used to seeing in Canada but are obviously different. Here is an example: a coniferous tree with something close to, but not, a pinecone:
Also a plant that looks like a dandelion, but is slightly not:
Almost certain we came across a fossil of a tree trunk. It looked like it could have been wood so I went and tapped it with a stone…..it was solid rock:
We also passed by a very thick wall that looked to be some old defensive structure….but we didn’t hike around it to see if there was anything more visible. Looks like part of old castle.
Seeing castle walls is not unusual anywhere in Europe. Amazing they are so old and still standing.
We hiked around the lake which was mostly on a road, but at one point we took a short-cut that was supposed to be a road but it wasn’t so we ended up jumping over a small stream and climbing up a very steep muddy bank. The soil was so loose that large chunks of it came down as we climbed up (hence all the erosion).
At another point the road was actually under a few inches of water for a few meters so we both got our shoes wet. I think that makes it an actual hike.
In all we walked about 7km around the lake. It was longer than it looked at first because the shore was so twisty, but it was a very interesting look at the agricultural part of Crete.
Adventures on Spruzzo 