Santorini Part 1 - a hair-raising journey up to the clifftop villages

I had seen pictures of Santorini which gave the impression of beautiful white villas with flat roofs and blue shutters, and white churches with blue domes, all perched on rocks overlooking turquoise seas and golden sands. 

So never did I in my wildest dreams anticipate the great height of the cliffs upon which all fourteen villages that make up this island were precariously perched, the hair-raising drives to get up to the top of the cliffs from the beach and then to the different villages over steep precipices, not to mention the cable car drop back down to the small pier. My heart was in my mouth the whole way! It is not an island for those who have a fear of heights; only my love for photography got me up there, I can tell you! 

This island was completely changed by a mighty volcano. Its cliffs are made up of regions of solidified black lava, dark red lava and light grey pumice in which jet black rocks are embedded, as though what spewed out in that volcano was frozen in time and space. You would think this would make the island very fertile and productive, but it has so little rain and such strong winds that it looks quite barren and rocky at the top. Even grape vines are grown close to the ground, like ground cover, instead of bearing their fruit from an upright position. 

Like Mykonos, the predominant building design is like a series of cubes joined together, but with their edges rounded. Even external pipes are plastered and painted white so they look like a rounded snake up on the side of the buildings. But unlike Mykonos, the buildings are not all white with a touch of blue. Some have other pastel shades, the combined effect of which is very eye-catching as you look at the closely-packed villas and hotels in the villages. 

I hate to think of what this island is like in the high season because driving into Oia, the village most filmed for its scenic beauty, was a very frustrating affair. The single narrow road leading into it was like car park. It took us an hour to get in from less than a kilometre away, and another hour to get back out. Our tour guide said that is their daily frustration. So we only were able to spare an hour actually exploring it. And just as well we left when we did, or the long, long queue for the chairlift to get down the cliff and to our tender boat would have been even more daunting and exhausting. But I will tell you more about that in my next post. 

Many of the following photos were taken from the bus window. 

Part of Santorini viewed from the top deck of the ship, using a zoom lens.

Taken from the bus when we were about two thirds up the cliff face. I could hardly bear to look. There was virtually no guard rail on the narrow road, which had many hairpin bends. 

Some of the pumice that made up the cliff face. The black rocks would have been thrown out of the volcano as it erupted.

A villa seen on the way to Ioa.

Some of the ground-hugging vines.

A hotel seen along the way.

A basilica in one of the towns.

Viewed from the town square in Oia.

Another view from the town square.

Imagine what this would look like at sunset or sunrise.

On the top of a basilica at the Ioa town square.