Stunning Santorini

We were whizzing along a quiet street on a rented quad bike, exploring the far reaches of Santorini, when a little old Greek man put his hand out to stop us. At first I was expecting him to be angry that our buzzing engine was making too much noise in his peaceful neighbourhood (I had earlier met a grumpy Greek stallholder at a nearby beach who yelled at me when I tried to take his photo). But I couldn’t have been more wrong this time around. This gentleman took a break from the bucket of handwashing he was wringing outside his back porch, pointed to the camera hanging around my neck and gestured for us to come into his humble backyard. Here, we soon realised, was an unobstructed view of the sparkling blue waters of the Aegean Sea with the white-washed houses of the caldera in the distance, a sight the landowner was clearly proud of.

Admittedly the view (above) was good (although not the best we’d seen on the picturesque island) but what was more fantastic was the generosity of this kind stranger.

''England?'' ''America?'' The inquisitive greek asked in his thick accent. When we told him we hailed from Australia his eyes lit up and a beaming smile spread across his face as he excitedly recounted the six months he once spent working in Melbourne and Sydney for a Greek shipping company.

He then ducked inside his laundy before re-emerging and presenting us with a perfectly kept postcard of nearby Red Beach (the same beach where I met the rude jewellery seller who wouldn't let me take his picture -- although look closely and you'll see him in the foreground of the picture below, as if I would let anyone tell me NO!)

The old man then waved us off, wishing us the best of luck for the rest of our holiday. This encounter is typical of the great hospitality shown to us by the Greeks so far. And typical of the many spectacular views on offer around Santorini, which turned out to be bigger than I expected -- the main island is more than 30km long and takes almost an hour to drive from end to end.

Before the trip someone warned me that I wouldn’t be able to put my camera down. And they were right. Bryan, as always, was very patient as I took about a million images capturing the essence of the ocean, the volcanic landscape, the people, the buildings and the beautiful sunsets.

We even stumbled across a traditional Greek wedding at sunset.

Before we left Santorini I swore to myself and to Bryan that I’d had enough of photographing cute white churches with striking blue dome roofs.

Lucky for me the tops of the churches in Mykonos turned out to be mostly red…