6th June 1984 - Boating around the caldera

Wednesday 6^th June  I walked to Fira, having arisen, and bought some oranges and yoghurt for breakfast. I bumped into Walker again so we went off to the museum together. There are some interesting pots, excavated from the island – I like the black figure pots because they’re the most interesting.

   She went off on a tour to Akrotini, the archaeological site [of the Minoan civilization, which was the first advanced civilisation in Europe], and I went down the steps to the harbor to wait for the sea tour on a caique to New Kameni (volcano). It left at 10.45 and took about fifteen minutes to get to the active volcano. We had about 1½ hours there (too long), lots of black chipped faced rocks, but also mounds of light coloured rocks. Gravel-type stuff and pumice, I guess. It was quite a way to the actual crater, where there was only a faint smell of sulphur and no steam. Dry grass, dried yellow flowers, white butterfly and a lizard that posed for me.

Aerial view of the whole caldera - another Wikimedia photo.

    On the boat, apart from a few Australians (there are more Aussies on Santorini, it seems, than on Crete – I only met one there [besides Margaret Walker, I presume]), there was an English couple, Socs (Socrates) and Caroline. Socs is a half-Greek Zimbabwean but has a London Accent. They gave me their phone number in Putney. [I did have dinner with them later in London.]

   The boats (there were another two) next called in at the hot springs on Palea Kameni (Old Volcano).

   We then went to the island of Thirasia and had lunch at the bottom of the village of Manolas. Then over to the bottom of Oia on the main island. We had the choice of going up to the top and catching the bus back to Fira or going back by the boat. Tired, we went back by the boat and went up on the cable car. I took Socs to the police station and got him to ask about my camera case. No luck. They went off to Kamari and I bought a small owl and tortoise at 150ΔΡX each, but I’ll never see them anywhere else. I saw Margaret buying some fruit. I bought some and also a Santorini untidy jim [sloppy joe, Australian for a kind of skivvy] and a card for Mum.

  I went back to Karterados, had a shower, packed, paid, had spaghetti bol. up the street and wrote diary before retiring for the night. [I think this is when and where I definitely decided to return to Japan on a working holiday visa – unless it was on Naxos.]