Coming back from Nea Kameni, they detoured around Palea Kameni towards Therasia. Knowing that the eruption largely carried east and southeast, he asked his guide if any of this island was untouched by the eruption. The fellow at first shook his head but then, glancing at Jason with narrowed eyes, suggested that the northwestern coast of Therasia was perhaps the least affected, but it would cost more to go that far out of his way. Of course! Jason thought to himself. Jason agreed to the increased cost after a little mild haggling, and eventually, the boat wandered out of the bay around the southern point of that island. A bit of open sea sailing followed before the man eventually turned the boat into a protected bay that didn’t look all that exciting.

The boat went around a large upthrust of rock with the low swell causing the small waves to break against the rock, but the upthrust also served to protect a somewhat hidden and sheltered cove where the wave swell was reduced to some extent. His guide grabbed a rope in the bow, waited for an upswell, and nimbly jumped ashore. The rope was quickly tied around a convenient piece of protruding rock, and Jason tried to emulate his guide’s smooth exit from the small boat. Having watched his guide closely, he waited for an upswell and then tried to hop ashore with the same ease the guide had shown. Well, at least he got ashore without getting wet! The guide waited until Jason had stood back up from the all-fours position Jason had finished up in before he pointed to an area further around the little bay.

“See there. That layer is the original island ground level before the eruption. You can tell by the type and color of the rock. There is another spot on the north coast where the sea has eroded the volcanic rock that covered almost everything after the big eruption as well.  I took a couple of English geologists up there and listened to their talk as they examined that area.” He clambered around an outcrop and then pointed at a sort of hollow. “See how there is a layer of eruption stone at the top with the original rock below. I think this was a cave channeled out by wind and waves. When the island erupted, the volcanic outflow was so heavy that the roof collapsed a fair way back, but perhaps not till well after the eruption, and then the fallen rock was eroded away over the three and half thousand years since.”

“Really?” Jason asked, suddenly a lot more interested as he grasped what the man was saying.

“Yes, Mr. Jason. You can see here at the back that there is a type of lichen growing that is like none found anywhere else on the island. And see these two types of bushes? They only grow here, and nowhere else on the island that I have seen. I brought a botanist here once, but he wasn’t impressed, saying the plants were obviously planted here in recent times as this one.” And he pointed at a weedy-looking thing. “It is like a type of thistle common in Greece, and the other is some branch of the hemp plant used to make marijuana, and he thought I was trying to hoax him. But truly, these two types of plants grow only here, and neither likes full sun, which is why they haven’t spread much, although that type of bush has expanded to that crevasse over there since the first time I was here.”