Andy Hall

This morning we sailed into Santorini we are all up early as we are anchored off shore with boats to take us in, today’s excursion is to visit a volcano and swim in a hot volcanic spring, weather is a little bit cloudy but hot already at 7 am and due to get warmer about 33 today.
Although a little bit of a confusing start we were in the lounge whilst Andrew patiently waiting for a tender ticket. We found each other eventually and off we went to board the tender. We got comfy and ready to journey to the Volcano only to find we needed to change boats and take one that could be off the set of Poldark. It was a little choppy and Lillian wasn’t keen on the motion ( whimpering like a dog). I kept an eye on Nyah knowing that she can struggle whilst Maisie look nonchalant. We arrived at Nei Kameni ( the volcano - known by the locals as xxxxx) the cove was quite small so we needed to moor alongside another boat and then hop along the boats to get to the jetty ( feeling very pirate like!).
We were put in the second group and struck gold. We had Hara (aka Mama Joy) and she has been a tour guide for 25 years. Her knowledge was outstanding but with an excellent sense of humour and an element of craziness (reminding the girls of our very own Grandma Hody). She made sure we all had water and could take our time to climb the Volcano. A walk in the park for Nyah (unfortunately my promise not to take her up a mountain not to even mention a volcano was broken) who pointed out how treacherous her conditions were but i have to admit walking in knee deep shingle in the dark made this climb easy peasy. Lillian on the other hand didn’t quite take it in her stride voicing her feelings all the way! I’m too hot, I need a drink, Please can you put your feet together (a request to make a perch - which has tickled Nyah and takes me back to when lillian was little and needed to sit down as this was my attempt at keeping her off the floor although have been times this trip where she has though ‘Meh!’ What the hell.
Anyway back to the Volcano, the views over Santorini were spectacular and taking photos just didn’t do it justice. When we got to the top Mama Joy dug a hole and you could feel the heat (hot enough to cook) and could see the steam (sulphur). Whilst at the top we had time to explore and go to the highest point and somehow take a random path back down (giving me a few palpitations that we were going to end up nowhere near the boat) thankfully leading us back to where we started. Getting back onboard we had to cross 3 boats pirate fashion. We did a short sail to the Volcanic springs at another volcano (now dormant). The ship moored about 100m from the springs so we needed to jump off the boat and swim in the normal sea to get to the springs which Lillian found a little fearful. First she was concerned about the fish so I firmly said there weren’t any. Poor love was shaking the deck hand asked if she needed a ring (which was declined) after a shakey climb down the ladder she finally let go and swam to Andrew who had spectacularly jumped in with his goggles on top his head (oops) despite the groans she did so well and made it to the spring. The normal sea temp was refreshing but swimming into the springs was lovely (like a big bath) we had a paddle and then headed back. Despite the offer of help from us all Lils got into her stride and swam all the way back, glad to get back onboard. Andrew struggled to get back on the boat in his words (I’m not flexible to get my leg that high) it was a challenge as you nearly had to your feet to chest level and hoist yourself up - whilst being watched by a group of people treading water in a line). Maisie was happy to let every Tom, Dick and Harry board showing off her years of swimming classes how adept she was to keeping afloat. Finally all onboard we hear the cry “there is fish”. Yep loads of themRead more