I think just about every ship to cruise the Aegean since Noah’s Ark has called at Santorini, for it’s unique among the Greek islands. I suppose the date 1450 BC is as indelibly engraved on the mind of a native of Santorini as 1066 is to an English person. That’s around when Santorini erupted, to cause the biggest bang in human history, and to wipe out a civilisation … although just how depends on which television archaeologist you believe. This eruption left the world’s biggest caldera, or crater, and all that remains of the walls are the main island, and that of neighbouring Thirassia. Nea Kamini is an island off Santorini, devoid of almost all vegetation, and looking more like a slag-heap than anything else. But, nevertheless, it’s an interesting slag-heap, as witnessed by the many notices on the quayside at the Old Harbour, below Thira, on the main island, offering boat trips to ‘see the volcano’. We took a kaiki to the island. That’s a name which conjures up visions of a cluttered, ramshackle fishing boat, skippered by a pipe-smoking, taciturn Anthony Quinn clone. But, although this boat was built to the traditional pattern, I doubt if those pristine decks ever had a fish landed on them. First, we stopped at the oldest crater on the island … which was a separate island, Mikra Kamini, until the 1920’s, when it was completely engulfed by lava from a new crater, christened ‘Daphne’. Not a place of great beauty, apart from the view across the caldera, with its imposing cliff wall, looking like a snow-capped mountain, with the whitewashed Thira perched on top of it. From the crater we could see the neighbouring islands of Palea Kamini and Aspronissi. Palea Kamini, to our surprise, had buildings on it! Overlooking a little bay were some whitewashed blockhouses and a little church. Hot springs flow into that bay, and the minerals in them are said to have curative qualities. But, all the time, we were glancing eastwards, towards a massive double crater called ‘George’, where some of the rocks gave off a slight vapour. The guide said it was steam, and quite normal, and it did that all the time. Secretly, I was rather pleased, for, so far, we had seen little evidence of present volcanic activity. We walked around ‘George’, and, on the eastern side, we saw some fumaroles; holes giving off steam and smelling slightly of bad eggs. Evidence enough, I think, that Nea Kamini isn’t extinct; it’s merely dormant. The last eruption was in 1950, and another one could happen any time. But, we were told, there was no immediate danger of that happening. They monitored it very closely, and would give plenty of warning. ‘And, if that happens’ said the guide ‘we have a very good tour of the vineyards on the main island we can do instead!’