Water springs

The Mana Charta: A map for bicycle tourists in Greece

You can see the map here

Have you ever run out of water while on bicycle tour in the middle of nowhere? What about carrying too much water although the area was full of springs?  I have had experience like this many many times although I only travel inside Greek borders for a week or two. I imagine cyclists that cross countries with their bikes have even bigger problems with water, lack of info for places they visit or dangerous places etc. What if there was a map for the country you are going to visit with your bike where you can find all the info a bicycle tourist would need while he/she spends some time there. Info about the location of water springs/public taps, dangerous roads that should be avoided or beautiful routes that should be cycled, important historical sights, bicycle repair shops, friendly fellow cyclists that can show you around etc. That means, instead of searching on google for interesting things about your route, you can see everything on a map and decide what route to choose so you can see more.

It’s a very ambitious project the truth is, and although I have had  this idea for a long time, I never had the know how to make something out of it. But recently, I found a rough way to start a very easy version of it and see what comes next.

So, at this moment, me and few friends have registered more than 100 clean water springs (as pins on a map with a description) and as more people learn about it, we are hoping that one day we can cover pretty much the whole country. At the same time I will start creating new layers of data for the aforementioned info.

Summarizing, the map will probably have the following data:

– Springs and public taps
– Dangerous and ugly roads (narrow, heavy traffic, routes that truck drivers use etc)
– Beautiful routes
– Bicycle repair shops
– Bike friendly shops
– ‘Mana Charta’ friends (people that can help you out, show around etc)
– Historical Sights and Monuments

Now, if you travel or you have traveled in Greece and you can remember where you found springs and taps, you can contact me so I can add you as a contributor on the map. Same,  if you want to contribute info for any other country, please contact me as well!

Also, if you are a coder and you want to help making this into a web app, you are very welcomed to contact me!

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