Ios Backdrop

Here's Hannah's mad skills 8m jump, as promised:

Ouch. My brave girl!!

Ios

The intrepid explorers, ready for Ios

The last island in our Greek tour was Ios, the “party” island. Whilst the whole island is generally geared towards getting absolutely blotto and forgetting where you left your pants, we discovered some great alternatives.

Luka and Stella – two most excellent chicks.

We signed up for a kayak tour around the bay, which was actually pretty awesome. Heading off nice and late (so that the boozers could sleep it off...) at around 2:00pm, we struck out across the bay for our first stop. Lunch. A big fire was rocked up, and we munched on fresh salad, weird Greek “bread” and sausages cooked by some Aussie dude... needless to say, the snags were charcoal, but really nice.

Cute little wall stuck on the side of a cliff

Next stop was a cliff jump, from an 8m precipice.

Swimming out to the launch zone

Scrambling up, we realised just how high 8m is.

Gonna jump, Jimmy?

Not bloody likely!!

Hannah strapped on her figs and showed us all how it's done... Creating

quite possibly the LOUDEST back-flop ever. That's my girl!! We've got a rad video of Hannah exploding ONTO the water. I'll try and get it up later.

Everyone who was jumping had a jump, then we moved onto the next bay for some snorkelling and sunbathing.

There isn't heaps to see, since the Greeks decided to a whole lot of fishing after the war. A whole lot of fishing using dynamite. Apparently anything that might have been there was well and truly blasted to a billion tiny bits of sand, which does make for some interesting landscapes underwater.

We finished up the day with an Extreme Hell Ride biscuit run behind a powerboat, blasting around. Everyone rolled up a little slow and sore this morning!!

The Other Hannah takes the plunge

We're in Athens again now, we've said goodbye to the Islands, and will start our next leg to France very soon! Tomorrow, the Acropolis!!

Santorini at 30km/hour

We had a very big day today. We had actually planned to do the laundry, but being Sunday, none of the washer-women were working. And so our adventure began...

We hired a quad bike which was an adventure in itself. This was NOT a decision made lightly. We'd seen people blasting around on scooters and mopeds on the last 2 islands and it wasn't until today that we felt it might be an ok idea. Not only are we driving on the 'wrong' side of the road here, but Greeks do some funny things on the roads.

 

We had helmets unlike half the loons (read: Aussie tourists) that drive around in their boardies and nothing else. The guy at the rental shop was trying to talk us into a 180cc bike and we were both saying, 'No, no! 50cc.' We got our 50cc for 15 Euros for the whole day - or bring it back in the morning - it doesn't matter...

Turns out he was right. The first hill we got to and we were being overtaken by everything on the island. I could have run faster. Girls on mopeds were going faster than we were. But we did get to see a lot of the island and at a very leisurely pace.

This is what we saw:

We drove to the southern tip of the Island to visit the famous 'Red Beach' - volcanic cliffs of red rock.

We'd hoped to visit the nearby archaeological site of Akrotiri, but it turns out its been closed to the public for four years.

 

So we puttered our way to the mid-east section of the island and had lunch in Perissa.

Perissa is known for its black beach.

They have walkways because the pebbles get so hot.

The water is still super clear. A lot nicer than that red beach. :/

We found that our crocs float.

 

The site of Anceint Thira was right next to Perissa but this wasn't accessible either. We didn't see the quad making the 500m ascent to the top of the mountain. So we made our way back to Fira, where we are staying. Today didn't seem to be the day for history and culture. But we did find:

and... 

Lots of grape vines here but they don't train them on trellising in rows like we do and they look a lot less nourished.

The views were breathtaking. It's so mountainous here!

Crazy Greek signs.

From the middle of the Island we went up to Oia (Ee-ya). A short 8km trip from Fira on the NW coast. But we took the low ocean road which was the long way around... across to the east coast and alll the way up and around.

Taverna by day.

Iced coffees out of the sun in Oia, overhanging the caldera, with Fira in the background.

 

There is a strange haze over the land here, the moon already up.

We didn't get to the 'White Beach'. But really, how could that compare when we have places like Yallingup and Esperance?? ;)

 

Weeeeeee!! We took the high road to Fira home. And I mean high!

vvvvvroom!

This completed our unintended circumnavigation of Santorini.

Santorini

 

We arrived in Santorini after a four hour ferry ride from Paros. Everyone we have met has raved about it, but both James and I agree that Mykonos and Paros have been nicer. Cleaner and less western feeling.

With Lonely Planet and Wikipedia as our guide (as our real one isn't very useful) we have still found out some interesting stuff! More about that in a moment... Given that I have been unable to update those around me about my general wellness and body alignment, I just needed to share my toe with you. Stubbed it climbing up a rock to cliff jump in Paros on our boat trip and then thought I might have broken it. It is now looking and feeling a little better and is no longer black. 

Thank you for indulging me.

Back to Santorini. Its one of the most seismically active places in the world. See all that water in the photo below? That used to be land. Inhabited since c.3000BC the island used to be round. Then around 1650BC (they think) the biggest volcanic explosion ever, caused the centre of the island to sink in leaving a massive caldera. The water where the ferry is is approx 400m deep.

Check out a map to see the circle of land surrounding the caldera. It's thought that the resulting tsunami from the explosion was responsible for wiping out the Minoans on Crete. 

That island behind the ferry is a dormant volcano that appeared out of the ocean around 1707. 

 

1956 saw a massive earthquake that destroyed countless houses and killed scores of people. You can see from this photo how the fabulous clifftop towns like Thira and Oia cling to the side of the caldera.

Donkeys can carry you up the 500 odd stairs from the Port to Thira for 4 Euros. Or you can save them their toil and take the cable car for the same cost.

Sunset from Thira.

Paros & Naousa

We took quite a few shots when we headed up to the small fishing village of Naousa (sounds almost like Noosa) with the girls, and around Paros, I thought I'd do a separate post of some them here.

The cobbled streets wind down narrow alleys, bustling with late night shoppers

The proud Greek village of Naousa, full of life, light and laughter.

Flowerpots adorn the merest of corners and crannies, adding colour everywhere.

Life moves at it's own pace in Greece, hence the notion of "Greek Time." Very calming.

Silence falls over the village at siesta, but come 11:00pm, when the sun goes down, these streets host an ancient theatre of trade.

A portal to another way of life. We could learn a lot from their laid back ways

Hand crafted wares abound.

Such contrast and vivid colours.

Traces of shade greet the weary bargainer.

Just a small selection, we have taken literally hundreds, but we need to go through them when we get home. I hope you get a bit of taste for where we've been!

Contemplation.

Paros

The "Alexandros."

So my pillow in Paros was like heaven. Our lovely little room overlooked a lemon orchard and had super cool air con and a decent bed. Only a short stroll into town, we checked out Parikia (the port town) for lunch and more gyros. I should explain the awesomeness that is gyros at this point. They are like a small kebab/souvlaki thing. Pork, tomato, onion, garlic sauce and chips all rolled up in a pita. Yes, chips. So good.

We met up with some of the girls on the tour in Naousa for dinner. It a very nice little seaside town with lots of restaurants and not as run down as Parikia. I had stuffed squid after we sampled some of the worst cocktails any of us had had in Europe to date.

There's so many cats in all these islands, not all as cute as this gorgeous little thing.

Yesterday we went out on a boat around Paros and Antiparos for the day. I think we now both finally feel like we're on holidays.

I agree with Hannah, the boat trip yesterday was good fun!!

We headed off for the trip around Antiparos (where Tom Hanks apparently has a home) and then stopped somewhere for a quick swim, through some natural bridge thingies.

Hannah's ghostly visage, showing just how blue water can get.

Yearrgh! A happy pirate with awesome hair...

Then onto the beach of Despotiko Island, where we were stuffed full of souvlaki, Greek salad, tzatziki and fresh bread. Needless to say there was gallons of wine and ouzo... I enjoyed my lemonade. Oh, freshly caught BBQ octopus. Big thumbs up, Spartacus style.

Awesome down-blouse shot.

After a nice lunch on the beach, we climbed back aboard, stopping at this private little cove with a climbable cliff for another swim. This place was so magic. It's hard to convey just how clear the water is, and the colour is something else. When you're swimming around, it looks like the water is maybe an inch below your feet. When you stick your head under, you realise it's maybe 4 or 5 METRES deep. Wow.

Surveying the drop into bliss.

Attention everybody! I have a very important announcement to make....CANNONBALL!!!!!!!!!!

The journey home delivered an outstanding number of giant waves erupting over the bow, and into our faces. Everything and everyone was soaked in a matter of minutes. So awesome.

Today was taken up mainly with arguing with hotel staff and ferry rides. We're here in Santorini, perched upon a hill in a sweet little hotel with Parosian marble floors. I've stuffed another gyros in my gob, and now I'm happy as. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.......