Santorini

Arrived off the Greek Aegean Island of Santorini at 7am. This is part of the Cyclades group of islands. A partly sunny day with temperatures up to 22C by the afternoon. An 8.30am tour took us by tender to the shore where about 30 of us transferred to our 2 masted barque. A 20 minute sail out to the island of Nea Kameni and the National Geographic Park. This volcanic island is uninhabited. It is still an active volcano and a path leads up to summit at the centre of the island. Our guide today was Josef who was very knowledgeable about the park. The boat docked in a small bay and we debarked to start the climb up the hill. Fortunately we were the first boat out there so we had the place to ourselves going up. The path to the top over uneven volcanic rock took about 30 minutes with several stops on the way up. The whole terrain is just black volcanic rock. Near the top we came to the Georgios crater which is still active. We observed the sulphur fumes and steam from here and could feel the heat. A short way past this we arrived at the summit at 127M (416FT) high and 1.3KM from the start. Great panoramic views from up here over all the surrounding islands. After a short time we began our descent back to our waiting boat. On our way down we passed several other groups just starting up. Back on our boat we took 20 minutes sailing to our next destination which was the hot springs found in a cove off the eastern side of the volcanic island Palea Kameni. We anchored close into the shore to enable those who wanted to swim from the boat into the cove. The water here is sulphuric and stains an orange colour. A 30 minute stay for the swimmers to return and we were again on our way back towards the main island of Santorini. Passed by some interesting rock formations and a small church up on the cliff side. Eventually landed at the small commercial dock where we transferred to a waiting bus. This took us up a steep switchback road to the top of the island and on to Santos Winery. We stayed here for about 45 minutes for a wine tasting. The wine was surprisingly good. More great views from the winery. The bus finally returned us to Fira, the capital of Santorini on top of the cliffs. A walk from here took us to the cable car and back down to the tender dock by 2pm.