Cruise Day Six – Santorini

What a day! Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic eruption that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island, and created the current geological caldera. A giant central, rectangular lagoon, which measures about 12 by 7 km, is surrounded by 300 m high, steep cliffs on three sides, it really is stunning. We arrived shrouded in fog, but that soon burned off to reveal the customary cloudless sky’s with little to no wind, another hot one.

Thera Santorini

Di and I didn’t take a cruise organised tour here, it’s only a small island so it is easy to get around. They anchor off shore and ferry you in using a local ferry company. As we both were supper keen we were in the first ferry in. When you get to the small harbour at the base of the cliff you have three options to get to the top where the main town of Thera the capital of Santorini is located, you can walk the 388 steps up the 300m cliff which in 30+ temperatures was out of the question, you can ride the same steps on a Donkey, but if you take a look at these poor animals, we couldn’t bring ourselves to burden them with my (better clarify it’s Lee talking) mass so we took the easy third route, riding the gondola to the top. We were first on it only costs 5 euros and only takes a few minutes and you are there in downtown Thera.

Santorini gondola

Thera is where the best shopping is, they tend to inflate the prices just a little in Oia which is the most popular location on Santorini. More on that later. We wanted to rent a quad bike to get around and see a bit of the island so within 50 metres of the top of the Gondola was a quad bike rental company. They convinced us to upgrade (or course) to a buggy as it was safer to ride if your inexperienced on quad bikes. I’m glad that we did because it was very hot and the buggies have a roof which helped shelter us from the screaming sun. Also the buggy has two side by side seats so much more comfortable for the passenger.

Buggy at Perissas beach

First stop was Perissas beach, this has black sand as the whole area is volcanic. Compared to Australian beaches it was average, but the foreshore was lined with colourful cafe’s and restaurants it was a very pleasant stop to have a drink. Each cafe had umbrellas on the beach in front of it that you could sit and enjoy the view.

We were both pretty keen to get to Oia at the other end of the island so after some refreshments we headed off on the road again. Oia, pronounced Ia, is the most famous of all villages of Santorini. It is known throughout the world for its quiet life and fantastic sunset, and is certainly the most beautiful and picturesque village of Santorini. The village is also situated on top of an impressive cliff and offers a spectacular view over the volcano of Palia and Nea Kameni and the island of Thirassia. Oia is situated on the north of the island, 11 km away from Fira. The drive from Perissas beach took about half an hour along a very twisty road. Took a short video, the scenery is not that good but you will get the idea. We had just passed through a very pretty section of the town and I asked Di to take a video but by the time she got her phone out and ready we had passed through it.

Arrived in Oia around lunch time, Santorini is certainly unique, there are  no sharp angles to the buildings, everything is flowing in the design of the buildings. Some of the small shops look more like caves cut into the rock rather than buildings. Everything is white and the domes of the churches are blue which gives it the well known look and feel of Santorini. The views from Oia are spectacular. Here is another video Di took at the small Cafe we had lunch at lurched right on the edge of the cliff.

The only regret on our visit to Oia is that we weren’t there for one of their legendary sun sets, we had to be back at the boat by 6:30pm. This little village is renowned for it’s spectacular sunsets. I would love to return one day, 1 day is not enough to truly appreciate the beauty of Santorini.