Weather: sunny - breezy in the afternoon
Photo: Armeni Bay just below Oia...our point of departure.
Photo: the catamaran Dream Catcher
Photo: All aboard!
Photo: the spot where we swam in the thermal water....note the volcanic rocks!
Photo: Obviously when he said "don't steer"...I obeyed! Actually, it was on auto-pilot.
Temperature: late 20’s
People come into your lives for a reason and two Canadians we met at breakfast yesterday morning recommended a sunset sailing trip which they said was the highlight of their trip away. We decided to take their advice and we couldn’t have agreed more. What a shame we were never able to tell these lovely folk how much we enjoyed our trip as they have already left for more adventures this morning!
The afternoon trip was arranged at breakfast time after a little bit of searching around for the name of the company recommended by the Canadian couple. As we hadn’t seen Thira, Desley and I set off for a spot of shopping after breakfast while David did his washing and some shopping and Cameron stayed back at the Hotel Keti and worked on his computer.
Desley and I purchased a few things – souvenirs/gifts and we bought some things for ourselves. There is a huge array of jewellery shops with an unbelievable array of designs - so far we have not succumbed and we keep saying: wait for Turkey! We met David and Cameron outside the Hotel Atalantis and found a great little café for lunch (Greek salads, omelette and club sandwiches).
After organising our things for our afternoon trip we walked to where we were going to be picked up by the coach.
I was a little tentative about going on a sailing catamaran so I took some of my magic seasickness tablets. The bus took us down to the picturesque fishing port of Armeni Bay which had a backdrop of rock just below Oia. The crew helped us on board and we were off for the most wonderful afternoon: swimming and snorkelling in crystal clear water; swimming near the active volcano to enjoy some thermal warm water and dining on board looking at the sunset.
It’s hard to describe the colour of the water- a royal blue with aquamarine perhaps. The masks helped us see some small fish and the black sand pattern on the ocean floor.
We managed to have three swims in total – one was well out from shore in a small cove where very old fishermen’s huts stood at the shoreline. The second swim occurred right at the centre of the caldera with the remnants of the large rocks left from the volcano. This was supposed to be thermal springs however the temperature was very irregular and without any real warmth. We had a great time in the water though.
Our next swimming spot (yes, I can hear you….you actually swam Mum?) was at White Beach which is only accessible from the water. I think big cruise ships must drop off tourists there as the beach was covered with stacked royal blue sun lounges and cream umbrellas. The sand on the beach is black with a white rock cliff as a backdrop. We swam from the boat to a rocky outcrop and swam between two rocks and then onto the shore.
We were able to sit on the front netting of the catamaran and soak up the warmth of the sun which was a lot of fun as well as seeing the water wash between the two hulls of the catamaran. Unfortunately, there was not a lot of wind today so we motored along.
Dinner was served about 6.30pm and after all our swims we were very hungry. Firstly there was a cooking lesson on how to make tzartziki which we then sampled with warm bread. A huge range of dishes were to follow including Greek and eggplant salads with a pork dish, pasta and more! We watched a hazy sunset which didn’t match the first spectacular one we witnessed as we arrived at our hotel but the views over the water were wonderful.
We all purchased t-shirts to remind us of the lovely time we had.
We arrived back into a port – Vlichada- around 7.30pm with sufficient light to see another gorgeous little harbour. We were driven back by bus to a spot near our hotel.
This was our last full day in Santorini – a little piece of heaven on earth.
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