Approaching Milos - Fountaine Pajot. [8768]
We're thinking "you come to Santorini for the views, not for the beaches". We're not sure that that generalisation is deserved because we didn't visit many Santorini beaches. What we do know is that there's not much beachy near Oia, and that the beach at Mario Restaurant in Monolithos was "sanded" with big round black rocks, very awkward to walk across. We would never think of that as a beach - we are obviously Sydney golden-sand beach snobs. However, further south there are attractive black sand beaches such as at Perissa. But at this stage, we would stick to our motto, but more on that below, as we ventured out of Oia for a sunset cruise, by SunsetOia.
Ammoudi Port is where we boarded our tender, the town of Ammoudi on top of the cliff, and Oia Castle visible at the top. [8754]
This is what passes for a beach at Oia. There's a path to here from Ammoudi Port. [8770]
A tiny chapel on the tiny island of Nisis Agios Nikolaos in Ammoudi Bay. [8769]
Our boat for the sunset cruise was Milos - Fountaine Pajot, a luxurious 58ft catamaran, extra spacious for the 14 passengers on board, and 4 crew. The tour company bussed us down from Oia to the tiny Ammoundi port which was crowded with multiple cruise departures and and seemingly chaotic, by the SunsetOia team, who do this every day, and certainly know what they were doing. We were tendered to our catamaran moored around the corner in the caldera under Oia. The crew were great - friendly and with decent English, and our 'guide' was a young lady with impeccable English and a powerful voice, very helpful since we guests were scattered all over the cat. We didn't catch anyone's names.
Oia panorama as seen from the caldera. [8775]
The skipper and guide on board Milos - Fountaine Pajot. [8828]
Unwelcoming and uninhabited Aspronisi formed during the Minoan eruption and built up by following volcanic outbursts. [8832]
The 5 hour cruise on Milos - Fountaine Pajot was a great way of seeing the Santorini caldera both from inside and at least a little bit outside. Santorini has been the site of numerous volcanic eruptions dating back hundreds of thousands of years, or millions, depending on what you read. In ~1600BC the catastrophic Minoan eruption, one of the largest in human history, prior to which the caldera was a nearly continuous ring of islands with only one entrance. At that stage, Santorini's name was Strongyle ("the circular one"). This eruption destroyed Akrotiri, the town whose ruins we visited when we were on the Sea Cloud. From the Minoan and subseuqnt eruptions, the rim collapsed and the resultant islands became more widely separated. Tsunamis engulfed islands up to 60km away. The Lightroom photo map below shows the present croissant shape of Santorini and where the photos included in this post were taken.
The chef onboard our catamaran at work. [8859]
A feast without waste, our dinner onboard Milos - Fountaine Pajot. [8880]
The more recent volcanic eruptions (from ~200BC to 1950AD) have resulted in two (uninhabited) islands in the middle of the caldera, Palea Kameni ("old burnt island") and Nea Kameni ("new burnt island"). There is still geothermal activity here, where the water is up to 5Co warmer than the rest of the caldera. On the northeast of Palea Kameni there is a slight sulphurous smell and the water is yellowish. We could swim here.
Hot springs here at a little inlet on Nea Kameni. [8825]
Taking in the warmish sulphurish waters at "hot springs" off Palea Kameni. [8824]
A yellow-legged gull over the Santorini caldera. [8905]
The cliffside near Akrotiri Lighthouse shows clear geological distinctions. The original lighthouse was built in 1892. [8926]
We had already concluded that "Naxos is for beaches, Santorini is for the view". Beaches are sketchy around Oia, and we had already seen how poor the beach at Mario Restaurant in Monolithos is, but this cruise saw us revise that maxim but only slightly. When the Milos - Fountaine Pajot ventured outside the caldera on the southern side, we were treated to a quite decent, partially organised, Paralia Mesa Pigadia beach with various unofficial names like White and Red, depending on the geological formations, the cliffs, from which they were made. (On the east side there is Perissa, a popular and well developed black sand beach.) White is not quite the colour of the sand under the white cliffs, because it is mixed with black sand, grey pebbles and pumice. And the red colour stems from volcanic iron minerals.
The cliff at White Beach on Satorini explains its unofficial name. [8863]
Noodles aplenty with passengers enjoying a dip off another SunsetOia cruise catramaran. [8854]
Mike swimming around the catamaran off White Beach. The water was 3-4m deep, but a crystal clear of the bottom. [8850]
Be careful where you put your feet, as Red Beach goers test the waters. [8892]
Professional fishing boat anchored off Red Beach on Santorini. [8897]
Accessible by road, Mesa Pigadia beach is well developed and organised in the typical European fashion. [8903]
At Black Mountain, lava rocks form surreal shapes, and the spot was popular with the sunset cruise boats which came in very close to the steep formations. [8913]
Sightseeing, swimming and dining done, our catamaran slowly headed towards to 8:45pm sunset, which we would view through the north-western entrance to the caldera. When the wind was right, skipper hoisted the sails and turned off the engine which made for a delightful experience. Who doesn't like to be on a boat under wind power? On the way back, we got to see all the ports in the caldera. Athinos Port is where the intra-island ferries call in, and where we disembarked from the Sea Cloud a couple of weeks earlier. There is a narrow zig-zag road up from Athinos to the rim that seems to be thick with traffic whenever we have used it. The so called Old Port is what it seems, but it is still used by the large cruise ships whose passengers can ride a funicular cable-car up to Fira town, Santorini's capital, where they can board buses. No vehicles can drive down to Old Port, although there is a very daunting "donkey track" that pedestrians can use if they are kenn and fit. Then there is Armeni Port, directly under our Canaves hotel, with only footpath access, and Armenaki Port which seems to have no land access at all. Finally, Ammoudi Port where we would exit the cruise.
On the homeward run across the caldera, the Milos - Fountaine Pajot at last hoisted its sails. [0506]
Late afternoon light shines bright on the Celestyal Discovery cruise ship. [8934]
Old Port, under Fira, can be used by a funicular, and a steep stepped footpath ("donkey way"). [8954]
Castle like Pýrgos Delénda at Old Port on Santorini. [8961]
Fira hovers over the Old Port on Santorini. Our guide told us that the large building centre bottom used to be a tomato sauce factory. [8966]
Sunset from our catamaran was pretty, although the sun does not set into the horizon but the hills of the 30km distant island of Sikinos. The perpetual haze adds to the beauty of the sunset. All the cruise boats line at facing the north-western entrance to the caldera. They don't have to jostle for positions - there's plenty of room. Some of the cruise ships set themselves up to enter the caldera at that time - maybe their passengers have a better view from the stern?
Modest sail plan in light winds on this tourist boat in the Santorini caldera. [8971]
Sunset from the Milos - Fountaine Pajot. Mike asked the skipper to position the catamaran "just so" relative to the other ship. [8982]
Oia, right on sunset, as seen from the caldera. The Canaves hotel is in those buildings top right. [9003]
So, that completes our Santorini blog posts. After our week at Oia, we caught the ever-so-crowded ferry back to Pireaus and then a limo back into Athens.
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