SOCOTRA, YEMEN
4 years ago, time to tell this story
We ask for your support, because Socotra has finally been dragged into Yemen's civil war, ripping apart the island's way of life. It’s changing Socotra forever from the self-sufficient oasis that we discovered a few years ago. We have been one of the few people visiting the island in the Arab sea where the dragon’s blood forest grows. Now it’s closed from the world.
Our story dates from in between two civil wars. When there was hope again. It is the missing piece of our travel story, but some already listened to our anecdotes about spying pirates’ boats, thousands of spinner dolphins and guides under the influence of the euphoric drug Khat. We did not finish our travel story, because life turned out to be different as we thought back then. But, since it’s an important piece to tell right now, it was worth the trip down memory lane. …
WHERE THE DRAGON’S BLOOD FOREST GROWS
The last piece of the story
Let’s go back to January 2014. We were half way through our travel from West Papua to the Himalayas. Travelling mostly overland. The way you see cultures and landscapes slowly changing or where plans can still change unexpectedly. We were told about a travelling photographer, who had been to an archipelago hidden between the Horn of Africa into the Gulf of Aden. He described it as the most out of this world place he ever visited: Jewel of biodiversity. Untouched. Ancient. That night we could not sleep, too excited and determined to make the island our final destination.
THE GIRL WITH THE GREEN EYES
We arrived via Yemen mainland, an airport strip in Mukalla. Four years ago it was still a sleepy town where we got a first glimpse of a medieval landscape with mud houses formed around wadis, lush green valleys. We arrived in this place after wearing bikini’s and shorts for 8 months. Still getting used to the dress-code, I carried my headscarf nonchalantly loose in the Iranian style and some slippers. I understood the looks once we boarded our propeller plane that would bring us to the island. The Yemeni apparel for women includes a face covering niqab, black gloves with black socks. Soon my ankles became the center of attention.
Hadiboh, the island’s main town is a collection of small stone villages and semi-finished modern buildings. Where shop owners still partly working as fishermen, suspicious business men and semi-nomadic Bedouin herders meet. Dramatic mountains formed the backdrop of this spectacle. Men walking through the streets dressed in the traditional garb of Yemeni men: a long beige or white skirt and a beautiful flower patched Keffiyeh head scarf. As we walked through the dirty lanes of the capital we fired questions at our guide Sami and driver Ahmed. Too eager to start making sense of all the things we saw: the mixture of influences, new smells and looking for some confirmation. Could it be that some of the Socotri people we saw, with their almond shaped light brown eyes and fair skin, were descendants from tradesmen following this Indian Ocean route? After a few days we heard stories about the Ancient Greeks passing by regularly, as did the Portuguese for spice trade and finally a lot of British on-route from India to Europe. Later, we met the girl with the striking green-brown eyes, the result of a long history of occupation.
BEANS, DATES AND GOATS
Our first meal was a typical loaf bread with some beans. After getting used to the Asian delights, we were unimpressed by the news announcing beans every day. Sami told us we should be thankful for this daily bread, because people used to only eat dates and fish. Flour and beans are shipped in from Yemen mainland, together with tonnes of Khat. A good deal more precious than food for some…
Now, Socotra is an island protected by UNESCO, and most of the plants are endemic. It took 18 million years of isolation to develop its unique ecosystem. The arrival of the date palm was not until the days of the Sultanate and scientist are still guessing to this day what people were eating before. Dates are everywhere, people walking with dates in their hands, proudly offering them to us: ‘very sweet…try’! They form the main ingredient of the local cuisine and a lot of families are proud date-palm growers. Beans and dates it was…
And Goats. Ten thousands of goats. The goats were brought to the island by sailors a long time ago. These little creepy creatures prevent new dragon blood trees from growing in the wild, eating all new sprouts. The dragon blood trees are protected by special tree nurseries. Socotri goats eat everything on their way and can appear behind every corner to spy on you. If you come out from your tent in the middle of the night, there will be a goat secretly following you hoping to score some food.
It’s a real shame, because - WOW- these trees are magical and they have one hidden feature. There is red color that comes out after wounding the tree. That color is used as a ‘cure to all’, as varnish, incent or rouge à lèvres. Children were selling these products at godforsaken places close to the dragon blood trees. Hoping and waiting that someday tourists will appear to sell their precious merchandise too.
FACES OF SOCOTRA
One day when we were driving from the Al-Hoq caves towards the white sand dunes close to the sea to spend the night, a group of children stopped us. We played for hours in the dunes and took some amazing portraits on their request. They sang some Socotri songs and in exchange we sang a couple of French and Dutch ones. They simply loved it.
SECRET HARVESTING
But the reality behind these pictures is a bit different. After a while, when we had no more songs to sing they started asking food or any kind of material. When we headed out, we needed to run and they grabbed all they could take including simple water bottles, my bracelet and some papers. Another example of the deprived situations in which many villagers live, was when rumour spread that Peter was a doctor. They ignored the ‘animal’ part and suddenly a queue of women, elderly and children came to visit us at our campsite. He did his best to remain friendly and to clean their infected wounds. We gave most of our medicine to them, since we had never been to a place so far removed from any form of health care. On top of that, imagine this: it is illegal to import non-endemic species or grow your own garden. A farmer showed us his secret garden where he planted some aubergines and pumpkins. All legal vegetables and fruits are extremely expensive, because they need to be imported from Yemen’s mainland. The UNESCO program tried to compensate this with piloting Eco-tourism projects. We stayed in tents or huts next to the village and all of the profits would go entirely to these villages. This is the only way to travel though Socotra. You will not find any hotel resorts on socotra (yet).
SANS UN REGARD, REINE DE SABA
Spending most of the time with Sami and Ahmed, while watching the sunset or heading off for the day, we exchanged small things like favourite music: Shakira (theirs, not ours), and we discovered the great Nancy Arjam. They went wild in the car singing Habibi from the sensual Lebanese singer. We tried a lot of songs, but none to their taste – we settled on Khaled as a soundtrack of our many driving days. We took care of French part ‘Elle est passée à côté de moi. Sans un regard, Reine de Sabbat….’ and they started when the Arabic part kicked in ‘نبغيك عايشة ونموت عليك’. Carla Bruni and Soeur Sourire were also popular when we spend the night in campsites outside of the villages and some people joined. It had something magical when late at night while watching the stars and we fell gently asleep in the soft sand of the beach, overhearing Socotri conversations.
THE NIGHT THE SOMALIS WERE COMING
That night we woke up with Kalashnikovs close to our heads. We were warned about Somali pirates kidnapping tourists before we came here. That in mind, our hands started shaking, but Sami started arguing with these men. We needed to leave the beach immediately and head back to Hadibu. Silence in the car until we arrived and heard what happened. These men carrying arms were marine soldiers to protect us. We were followed all day by a boat waiting around the bay to make their move during the night.
The next morning, back in the hotel, we found Sami and Ahmed close to the TV-screen. They were lively talking about the rising tensions on Yemen mainland. A group of ten men looked very worried while they were listening to the news about the alliance of the tribes. But, when Sami saw us, he smiled: ‘I have to tell you about what happened this morning. The marine entered the boat and they found a group of fishermen normally located at the other end of the island. Now Sami twisted his words while he looked playful: ‘they never saw a women before. In bikini.’ We both moved to tears: our so-called pirates turned into innocent, yet spying fishermen.
CLOUDY & MOUNTAIN DAYS
The only rainy day during our time on the island, our Socotri guides had designed the perfect plan for us. We would drive to a remote waterfall and take Khat, a full day activity. It starts with getting Khat leafs at the local bar. A number of men were laying on mats, chewing on this green leafs staring lifeless in front of them. They clearly already started early in the morning. Our experts Sami and Ahmed told us that if you chew on Khat you start getting a mild euphoric feeling, so we would use this energy to visit the waterfalls. But, by the late afternoon the relaxing part of the Khat session kicks in. Most Socotri men actually stop what they’re doing as from the afternoon as the drug is so integrated into daily life that many aren’t aware of just how controversial Khat is considered outside of Socotra and Yemen. Just for the record, I only tried this (a bit) as part of the cultural immersion.
The day after we had planned a three-day trek in the Hajhir Mountains, we had to reduce this to one day, because of the pressing heat and reasons disclosed above. We discovered the most Jurassic landscape high in the central mountain rage.
NATURAL INFINITY
At first, we did not want to come to Socotra with a tour in a 4x4 vehicle. Since there was no way around it, we planned to stay one week longer. Our Guide Sami stopped trying to convince us that we needed to visit Sanaa for a couple of days instead. The situation on the mainland really started to get sketchy. We asked Ahmed if he could leave us at the most beautiful places the island has to offer. Now, here comes my travel companion's real motivation to visit Socotra. The island is supposed to have excellent conditions for surfing. Even though the waves were average, we stayed at a place close to the surf spot. A camp without electricity, running water, far away from anything or anyone, a bit of food, a lot of sun and 40 degrees….
Our second dream destination was a natural spot in Homhil, including the natural infinity pool on the cliff-side. Free coastal panoramic views into the Arabian Sea. Seemly perfect, we started to feel it was time to go home. Europe was calling us.
THE TRIBES ARE COMING THEY SAID…
Before leaving Socotra rumours were spreading about potential attacks on the airport. The same airport we needed to pass though to get home after a long journey. As I stared at the gate at the Sanaa Airport in my long black dress, hands slightly shaking, clutching my paper copy of the Yemeni visa, I kept thinking: not now. I want to go home. What are the chances we would be kidnapped by a tribe and held for ransom to build a school or road?
Hurry up, the tribes are coming, they said…
OUR SOCOTRA STORY
Then & Now
We wrote this story, because many people cannot imagine how this affected region looks like, smells, how warm people are or just how incredible nature is... We aimed to give one perspective about the rich and resilient culture, unique nature at risks to fade away. The Socotri people have been almost entirely cut off from the outside world since our 2014 visit, partly due to the proxy war raging on in mainland Yemen. The situation is getting worse every day...
Every word, every action, every moment counts.
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