Wednesday Walk. Along The Salt Pans

Todays Wednesday walk is along a stretch of coast called the salt pans. The salt pans were cut in the rocks thousands of years ago by the Phoenicians. Originally, they followed the natural shape of the rock formations. (The ground is limestone so quite soft.) Later came the arrival of romans and with true Roman efficiency they were converted to square and rectangular pans.

This is a relatively short walk of a round a half mile, as the salt pans are quite distinct. I did not want to mix it up with other areas that the salt pans run into.

The Mediterranean Sea is quite a salty sea. The sea has evaporated a few times leaving the salt behind. Around 5 million years ago the ground moved at the straights of Gibraltar allowing water from the Atlantic Ocean to refill the sea. So, the sea water already salty had extra salt beneath it to enrich its salt density. For more information I found this short article that explains the salt density further should you wish to find out more. https://www.livescience.com/42115-giant-salt-crisis-explained.html

Water from the sea floods the saltpans and the heat of summer evaporates the water leaving behind sea salt.
The pans are mostly family owned, some collect the salt, some don't bother. In recent years many of the pans have been refurbished so maybe more of the pans are being utilized now.

I started the walk looking at the older pans that follow the natural shape of the rock. Notice the larger pools. I will come to that later.

Next is the Roman modified pans again with the larger pools. These are quite worn and eroded by weather. (Acid rain is not good on limestone.) I don't think I would fancy salt on my food from these pans.

The next pans have been refurbished and are in much better condition. Obviously, these are worked.

A few more salt pans here

I said I would cover the large ponds.

Sea water is put into the large ponds where the water evaporates leaving the salt rich water behind. Like cooking where food is reduced to thicken it. Then the salt rich water is decanted into the shallow pools for final evaporation before the salt is harvested.

There are quite a lot of pans all along this area.

Once collected the salt is or was, stored in man-made caves.

The door to the left is a sea salt store and the guy on the right is selling salt from the side of the road. He used to park his truck diagonally across the carriageway so motorists were forced to slow down as they passed. I suspect he has been warned off doing that.

While walking I came across this. It was not there last year, someone has gone to a lot of trouble to create this spiral. (It has nothing to do with salt pans,) someone just decided to do it. Interesting & surprisingly relaxing to look at. I might use the picture in a future music video.

This is the end of this walk today. Next time I will continue from where the salt pans finished. Hope you enjoy the walk as much as I did walking it.