Seeing through different lenses, Phytography and Geoparks

Today we visited the UNESCO Global Geopark.Psiloritis, a newly excavated site of a Minoan palace at Zominithos, the Ideon faultline, Ideon Cave the birthplace of Zeus and a Mitata (shepherd’s hut).

Victoria and me with some help from Laura managed to do 5 x Phytography tests this morning, we worked out that it needs to be 9am sun for at least 30 minutes. Better if something is weighing it down. The fix needs to be stronger, Andraes says it needs more salt.

At the Geopark James collected rainwater samples and talked about calibration – again I think of that in terms of photographic calibration of tone or colour. These samples were to calibrate the samples collected in the cave at Chainispilos. I think to check it is the same water making its way through the Karst to the cave. I am slowly learning a new language and gleaning a lot of expert knowledge of the geology and history of Crete.

Maria discussed Geoparks and their intention. She described a collaboration between science and local communities working in the best interest of local needs, customs, products, through local knowledge and lived experience. Geoparks foreground informed consent – working with an exchange of knowledge and ‘seeing through a different lens’. She described the importance of a dialogue with mountain territories. Individual villages ‘create definition’ each with very different communities, cultures and dialects. The distinction of villages has been kept intact because of their distance from the cities.