The Donkey and The Cliff
There are 588 large steps up the side of the cliff to the town of Fira at Santorini. The steps zig zag all the way from Athinios Harbour right up to Fira, which is the beautiful capital of the island at the top.
If you don’t want to walk the steps, you can always ride a donkey up. And that’s what I did. Donkeys didn’t seem to me to be the fastest of creatures, and I had a picture in my mind of a gentle carriage up the windy steps, enjoying the gorgeous view, with the hot afternoon sun at my back. But that was not to be.
Usually the mule-overseers help you climb up, hand you the reign, and let you trot off together. Not in my case. For some reason, this young overseer decided to accompany my donkey and me. This would have been fine except for after a few steps, he started yelling something Greek at the donkey and then it bolted like a mad thing heavenwards.
The young guy was evidently used to scaling the heights of the twisty path and had no trouble keeping up, and so every time my donkey mercifully slowed down, he would inspire it to blot like crazy again.
It would have been funny except for the way that the donkey was also lurking very close to the edge of the steps and it was a long, long way down. I gripped so hard onto the handles that the palms of my hands were actually bruised the next day – eek :). I can tell you that I walked the way back down at the end of the day :).
The photos are of Athionios Harbour, the steep twisty steps and me with a donkey.
