The Making of the Bleasdale Paxos Map

Making the Map - How the Bleasdale Map was born

In recent years, more advanced GPS Receivers have been bought, allowing detail to be plotted on their own little screens as one goes along and then downloaded to PC back at the villa.

All, then known, footpaths were re-plotted and the detail of the inland villages improved and up-dated. Subsequently for the 2008 Edition 10a, all contours have been re-plotted and re-drawn, now at 25m. intervals which should give a better impression of the land-form.

There is a dichotomy between showing the contour too firmly (or darkly) and obscuring the other map detail and a compromise has had to be reached which may not satisfy all, but I have tried my best!

The kind gift of two air photographs of Gaios has been a help; Elizabeth has painstakingly traced them onto the latest edition Map. Similarly helpful has been the better definition of Google satellite-cover over recent years. To my astonishment I found that the coastline as indicated by Google, had most remarkable agreement with my survey and though I have taken the liberty to copy Google in some areas and must acknowledge this, the adjustments have been slight. Inland, of course, with the heavy tree-cover, aerial images are of little help.

There was a short stretch of the south-west coast where I lost satellite cover in Dimitrios’ boat and the 10th. Edition had to rely on the 9th. This bit of coast has turned out to contain most interesting detail including Footpath 43a and its branches and the most interesting Ellinki (or “Hellenic”) cisterna. This is fully illustrated on the 10a Edition Map with some other coastal feature names repositioned. I hope I’ve got them right this time!

Which bring me to placenames in general. All cartographers have the problem of how and where to insert placenames. Basically you can only insert them where there is SPACE among the drawn detail. This may not accurately define the actual location. This is made especially difficult on Paxos where many settlements have no discernible nucleus. Once again I’ve tried to do my best and have certainly corrected my worst error with Petratika, near Lákka. But there may be others. Noticeably, if one looks at published lists of Tavernas and other businesses on the Island, there seems to be many place-names which I don’t show at all. I think different locals have sometimes different names for the same locality! However I would like to get them right and the Mayor’s Office did promise that a local expert would look over the Map for such errors. I’ve waited 6 months with no signs of a result, ad, as I had promised a new edition in early 2008, I have had to go to print without it. The Spanish have ‘Manana’; the Manx ‘Traie-d-looir’ which translates as “To-morrow will do”. The Greek version seems to amount to “Next Year will do - or even the one after” at least on Paxos.

Edition 10a is in half-sheet, double-sided form at 1/10,000 scale, as was Edition 10 and will slide into the same pocket at the back of the 10th. Edition Booklet which will continue in use. I have prepared small ‘stickers’ to adorn the front cover, explaining the change.

As well as the improved contours and improvements to the coast, we have found several additional footpaths, some minor, some major and all, I hope, interesting and worth walking. To find out about them you will have to buy a copy. Instead of inserting update material here on the web, it is fully notated on the new Map. All paths and other detail on Anti-Paxos has been extensively revised, considerably helped by the work of Peter & Maggie Whiston and the Foxes.

GEOGRAPHIC SPATIAL LOCATION. Whilst one GPS receiver will produce a reasonable map of the Island, another may not locate the whole in exactly the same setting. If you try to locate it from Admiralty Charts or Almanacs you will get something rather different and Google will be different again. Thus I have abandoned trying to give latitude and longitude lines. All I think I can reasonably do is give two spot readings averaged from my (and a correspondent Peter Whiston who has a similar instrument) current GPS Receiver which is a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx.