we had dreamed of going to elusive Socotra since we first heard about it 10 years ago from a Yemenite on a hostel balcony in Amman… now we were fortunate enough to be able to turn that dream into reality. As Socotra belongs to Yemen it is not so easy to get there. And also you can’t go there on your own – you always have to go with a guided tour. There are flights once or twice a week from Abu Dhabi but it could only be booked by our Tour company through an agent in the Emirates. Apart from the slightly more challenging way to get there Socotra is a very safe island to travel to – it has nothing to do with the sad conflicts that are going on in mainland Yemen.
After arriving at the airport we were greeted by our guide Ali and our driver Abdullah. We booked our tour through “Socotra holidays & tours” and as it turned out our group only consisted of 2 more wonderful women from the US. Our guide was a very nice, calm guy with deep knowledge. We appreciated that he gave us a lot of freedom at the “tourist sights” and did not babysit us all the time 🙂 Sometimes he would drop us off at point A, tell us to walk for one hour into one direction where he would meet us again at point B. Our little group was often the last one to arrive at a spot which was nice because all the other groups had already left and we had the place for ourselves.
Our first stop was a restaurant in town for lunch and afterwards we were dropped of at one of the two very basic hotels in the main town Hadibu were we had some time to rest. At one hand we were very eager to start exploring, on the other hand we had a very short and bad night so we were also kind of glad to not overdo the first day. In the afternoon we started driving to a huge white sand dune east of Hadibu which was “climbing” up the nearby mountains. We had plenty of time to explore the beach on our own with its fascinating big mussels and to climb the sand dune for sunset.
On the second day we drove into the mountains in the east and did a small hike to the so called “infinity pool”. Unfortunately the weather was rather grey…but nevertheless we went for a small dip before starting our hike down to the sea. After lunch we continued to Archer beach where we dropped off our tents and continued to the most eastern point of Socotra for sunset. There we spotted our first group of dolphins very close to the shore 🙂
After enjoying a beautiful sunrise at Archer beach we continued to hike to Hog Cave. This was probably the longest hike we did on the island, approx. 1,5h uphill (very slowly). We ventured deep into the cave. Us personally we are not the biggest fans of caves so for us the hike to the cave was more beautiful than the cave itself 😉
At the bottom of the hike we had another nice lunch picnic before we continued to drive to Dirhamri beach. We were supposed to do some snorkeling there in the afternoon but unfortunately the sea was very rough and it was not possible.
The next day we crossed the island towards the south coast. On the way we stopped for a nice hike down to a canyon where we swam in refreshing water. But as we had to hike back up to the car in the midday sun all that refreshment was soon gone and we were hot and sweaty again 😀
On very rough gravel roads we continued driving for about 3h through very nice mountains and saw many bottle neck trees -some of them already in bloom. Our drivers had a very pleasant driving style, knew very well what they were doing with the capable Toyota Land Cruisers on steep rocky paths and we never felt unsafe at all. For the sunset we had some time in the sand dunes in the south before we arrived on our camp site next to the sea.
Day 5 started with a stop at another cave before we headed towards the mountains to the very famous dragon blood trees. They are endemic meaning there’s no other place on earth where they grow. We stopped at a nursery for dragon blood trees where someone tries to grow new trees since at least 18 years with medium success… When after a strong storm the fence is broken and not repaired quickly enough goats enter the „tree-nursery“ and eat as much as they can…
For lunch we stopped at a lovely creek where we also found a nice little pool to refresh. Afterwards we headed to the dragon blood forest and hiked to a nice viewpoint above the trees. This night was the only one where we slept in the mountains and not at the ocean. We enjoyed the beautiful sky at night (we timed our visit to the island so that we have new moon, so no light pollution). We were happy that it was not as cold as we feared because we were not provided with proper blankets, only our silk sleeping bags complimented with clothes and our jackets. (this was a misunderstanding with the tour company because it said we would get blankets, but we only got a bed sheet)
On the next morning we were already heading towards our last main destination for our trip. We drove to the very west of the Island to a lagoon close to the town “Qalansiyah”. We enjoyed our time in the lagoon with its white sand and crystal clear water with the only annoyance being some small jelly fish. In general this was a relaxing day for us and we enjoyed some free time strolling around the lagoon and discovering different animals in the shallow water.
On our last morning we started on a little boat trip along the shore. The main destination was a beautiful white sand beach but for us the boat trip itself was much more interesting. Never in our life did we see so many dolphins next to our boat…it felt like we were driving on the “dolphin highway” to the sardine swarms 😀
The last evening we spent back to the same hotel as the first night and had dinner in the same restaurant as on our arrival day – which was excellent as they had super tasty fresh made bread 🙂 We also discovered that the hotel has a roof top (filled with construction junk) where we enjoyed some last moments above the rather dirty and unpleasant city of Hadibu.
while we usually don’t book guided tours we do have to admit that we really liked the fact that we did not have to take care of anything… also we did not need to make any decisions. This was very relaxing for the head…
After one unforgettable week on Socotra it was sadly time to say goodbye to this beautiful, peaceful gem.
NOTES & ANECDOTES
to us it felt like February was a very nice month to visit Socotra. Temperatures were rather pleasant (28°C) and some of the bottleneck trees were in bloom. Also most of the time we had a refreshing breeze. According to our guide the wind stops in summer and autumn.
our driver was very irritated that we did not want to take a picture of a cow next to the road 🙂
there are hardly any small dragon blood trees in nature on Socotra. There are two reasons for that: 1 people collect the seeds of the trees because if their goats eat them they will die. 2. If there is a small dragon blood tree the goats will eat the green of the tree and the tree dies.
they import some leaves from mainland Yemen which are called „Khat“ The locals squeeze a huge amount of them into the mouth and chew it. It is supposed to cause greater sociability, excitement, mild loss of appetite and mild euphoria.
we did not exchange any money for this week. If necessary we paid with USD.
Some information for choosing a tour company
When we started our research we noticed a huge price range between different agencies. We compared the itineraries of four different companies and noticed that they all go to more or less the same spots, just in different orders. Here are some points which we noticed during our stay which justify the price difference:
- we only had a local Socotri tour guide who spoke very good English. Some other groups were already met by their additional European tour guide in Abu Dhabi. Naturally this second European guide has to be paid (reflected in a higher tour price)
- we had one guide and two drivers, who also did the cooking for lunch and dinner and set up our tents and in general took very good care of us. Other groups had a separate car for the crew who drove to the lunch spots and camp sites before the tourists arrive.
- other groups had an outdoor carpet in front of their tents and the tents were from a European manufacturer (hence longer/better suited for tall Europeans)
- we saw several cars which had air condition and also a cooling box for cold drinks – both things we did not have but also did not miss
click the image to enlarge
