This morning we woke up to another beautiful sunny morning with not a single cloud in sight! We got up and got ready and went and asked reception about hiring an ATV. The staff at our accommodation are amazing - they are so helpful and friendly! They organised everything for us and us picked up from the hotel! We hired an ATV for the day to ride around the island! It's the cheapest, easiest and best way to see everything! The beaches in Santorini are hands down the most interesting and amazing beaches I've ever seen! We are so lucky to have beautiful beaches with crystal clear water and white sand! We started at Kamari beach - it has black sand! It's so hot to walk on!! We learnt the hard way. We stopped there for a while and wandered up the side walk to find a little supermarket where we were able to buy a nice and cheap fruit salad to enjoy by the beach! After we finished breakfast we walked to the end of the beach and went for a swim and dried off in the sun! We then hoped back on our 4 wheeler and headed through Fira towards Pyrgos, which lead us to Red and White beach! Red beach was absolutely amazing! You walked around a cliff to over look a beach that was surrounded with red cliffs - it had bright blue water and red and black sand! It was like nothing I had ever seen! Simon swam for a good half an hour. After a while we set off for white beach which turned in to a new adventure!! On our map it was meant to be the next turn on the same road! Somehow we found a secluded little beach down a hilly dirt road where a lot of locals were relaxing! The beach had big black stones and no sand or pebbles, but a number of sunbeds to use. There was a beautiful wooden house perched up on the hill overlooking the ocean as you pulled in. We thought it would ridiculously overpriced and expensive as the area was too good to be true. We had a look at the menu and instantly decided we had to eat their! It was ran by a family. Our waitress was no older than 9 years old! Simon and I shared a Greek salad and calamari and both agree it that it was the best calamari we have ever eaten! It was so fresh and tasty! The restaurant had the grandparents, and their children's family working. There was a little girl, a grandchild of the owner, who was walking around in her little nappy with her fake plastic camera pretending to take photos of everyone! She was adorable! When we were leaving I had my camera out and was cleaning the lens of my camera when she came up beside me and starting cleaning her camera with her nappy like I was using my dress. She was the sweetest little thing! After a few hours of relaxing on the balcony overlooking the ocean we set out to find white beach. We ended up driving through one way alleys in a village! When you see pictures of Santorini they're the white houses with blue roofs built in to the side of the mountain. Well, we were driving through that!! We had old Greek couples poking their heads out telling us where to go! We had no idea where we were going or where we were!! We stopped at one point and contemplated reversing back down, but we were too far up! You literally couldn't even attempt to do a 10 point turn let alone a 3!! Somehow we ended on the main road! It was so funny. We gave up on white beach! We could see it but we had no idea how to get there! We made our way back to our villa and had a little rest before venturing to Oia to see the sunset!! Yay!! Finally I get to see the sun set over the ocean :) it was magical, so beautiful! Simon and I both got some amazing photos and a few really cute ones thanks to the timer :) while we were sitting and waiting for sunset. Simon made a bet that the first person to hit the wire cable below us had to cook dinner and of course I lost! He got it first attempt :( the ride to and from Oia was beautiful - driving along the coast overlooking the ocean with the sun setting and the mountains beside you! It was so relaxing :) After sunset we made our way back and stopped at the mini market and bought some groceries to make food for the next few days. For dinner I made a
Pesto pasta with melted feta! It was exactly what we felt like. Home cooked food!!