Sunset last night from our cave house.
Last night as we planned our next day, Kathy decided that she would like to have a quiet morning. Good idea. Annemarie and I proceeded to prepare for a walk we'd read about at home. And after a very good dinner...from our restaurant.
We decided to get up early and start before the sun was too high in the sky. The walk is about 12 kms to Oia and runs as the title of this post suggests, along the crater rim. Our plan was to walk to Oia at the far end of the crater, have breakfast and walk back. And that's just what we did. We carried light day packs with our hydration because we knew it would be hot and some of the walking a bit steep. The early morning light was as gentle as expected and the air was still. A perfect beginning. The cruise ship fleet was just beginning to arrive, no doubt serving early breakfast aboard.
Our destination,
The trail passes through three of the original towns. However, with all the hotel and tourist developments, for the first few kilometres it's hard to tell where one original village begins and another ends. Even the locals have been heard to say that things are getting a big over-built. It seems that the island is almost at a tipping point, but that's not the purpose of this post. You can see the trail running along the ridge line.
View back to the south west showing the gentler side of the island. No swimming beaches any longer as they have all been closed after I believe several drownings occurred at black sand beach. I swam there in 1975 and it was just fine, but things change.
One of the pretty little churches along the walk. There were perhaps 8 churches.
View from the last climb...breakfast is just ahead!
Our breakfast view...from the lady's bathroom. Almost beats that Melbourne view from the men's bathroom!
Our actual breakfast view!
The walk back was hot and steamy with more climbing. The same route seen from a slightly different perspective.
For those not quite prepared for the rigours of the road! They carry you up the last climb...for a fat fee!
There are a million weddings happening here, all the time, every day. Talk about expensive destination weddings! As we got back into town we heard the song I Raise You Up. A good thing to hear at the end of a long hot stage! Carried us most of the way home. Almost!
Walking the ridge trail in 1975 with my sister.
I wanted to see a photograph of your breakfast!
ReplyDeleteAll that beautiful scenery and you want a photo of an egg!? Ha:)
DeleteThe wifi must be better today because eventually these photos came through as well as the words. I'm glad they did, they are stunning. And really nice to see the shot from 1975. It must be a bit surreal seeing all these places again after so many years. Thanks for sharing this blog, it sounds like a great morning. We waled in to Coimbra this time last year, just about to meet up with you two - good memories of that too. Best, Neil
ReplyDeleteYes, very strange some days to be here. The scenery is still stunning, but so many people here seemingly without much purpose other than to lay by pools and cook their bodies. Selfie sticks are everywhere. We were all happy to get to Heraklion on Crete last night. As the boat load of tourists emptied and then disappeared into the big city scape we felt much better! Here it feels much like a city in Spain while on Camino...hard to explain. So you must be reading your blog each day? Yes our meeting in Coimbra was something memorable! Thanks for following!
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