Still in Aden I spent a good ten minutes trying to explain to a taxi driver that I wanted to go to the airport. It came to the attention of a passing police car. I tried to explain to them for ten minutes that I wanted to go to the Airport. They sent out a message over the loud speaker calling for anyone who spoke English. I just picked out Inglezi, I assume thats what they were asking. Maybe it was "hey, get a load of this dumb English guy." Either way a guy came over from a nearby cafe and asked in English what I wanted. I said I wanted to go to the airport. And he said to them in Arabic exactly what I had been saying in Arabic for the past twenty minutes. The look of their faces said somelike "oh, the AIRPORT."
After a sleepless night on account of the fan not working and having to get up 6am to catch a flight this would probably be as frustrated as I get, if it wasn't so funny. Not laugh out loud funny, you know, Seinfeld funny. At least this driver was honest.
It was a short flight to Al Riyan over what people think of when they think of Yemen. If i wasn't going to Socotra I would have been down there right now sharing the front seat of a taxi with the fattest men in Yemen being felt up by the driver every time he changed gears which on a hilly winding road would have been often on a drive that would have resembled the drive from anywhere twelve hours away from Port Augusta to Port Augusta. Instead I was 8km up drinking tea and eating cake which incidentally is more than what you get with BA ( Bugger All, I mean British Airways). After a quick drop off and pick up in Al Riyan it was another short skip across the water to Socotra Island, a remote Island somewhere off the coast of Somalia.
Given it remoteness i was fully expecting it be a bit behind the mainland. This was confirmed when the plane chased a goat of the runway when it came into land. Given my preparation for this part of the trip (none) I wasn't sure what I was going to do but after chatting to a few people I ended up for better or worse hiring a driver for the week. After a few bad ones I've become weary of tours of any description. He took me to a restaurant for lunch, I wasn't over charged so it wasn't a bad start.
The first night we camped where a fresh water stream met the ocean under a sand dune on the east coast of the Island.
The morning of day two and I went to see a cave which went about 5km into the side of a mountain. Most of it was dead but not all of it. It was still quite impressive and made a change to have a cave to yourself and torch with no floodlight, no board walks and no names like the 'cathedral' bolted to the falls. After that I head to Di Hamri protected area for a pit of a peek under the water. The reef wasn't brilliant but the quantity and diversity of fish life was as good as I've seen anywhere. This included three dolphins playing piggy in the middle with a bit of scrap tin, pretty cool. I camped on the beach again and had the fish that I just spent the afternoon gawking over for dinner.
The next morning I hiked with my driver to a fresh water pool near Homil. Old Italian men in budgie smugglers aside you would be hard pressed to find a swimming pool anywhere with a better view. From here it was a shorter hike to Homil for lunch and a quick walk around the grove of dragons blood trees. In the afternoon we drove across the island to Qalanshah. Animals aside the scenery reminded me a lot of sub Saharan Africa. For two nights I camped on the edge of a lagoon. Very pretty. Again more sea life than I expected. A walk though the knee deep water revealed small fish, stingrays, thousands of crabs, puffer fish, an eel and even what I thought was a juvenile sea snake. It may just have been a long thin eel, I'm not sure. Keeping with the routine I had fish for dinner, bough from one of the many boats in the nearby village.
On day four we drove across the Diksam plain to the south of the Island. En route we stopped at another fresh water pool for a swim. This one was at the bottom of a canyon. I almost felt embarrassed for what the driver put his car through just so I could go for a swim. The 'road' was cut into the side of a valley. It must have been a brave man to come down here in a car for the first time. Of course coming down was the easy part, after the swim we had to go back up the same way. For something that is essentially volcanic rock you wouldn't expect much plant life on the Diksam plain but in every crack in the rock there seemed to be something growing from it. Mostly Socotran Croton Croton but occasionally the Socotran desert rose. It has a massive swollen trunk with tiny branches and a few leaves and stunning pink flowers. That night we camped again on the beach at Aksum on the south coast of the island.
In the morning the wind had picked up and you wouldn't have guessed there was a mountain range separating the north and south coasts. We drove back across the Diksam plain to a valley in the Hager Mountains. Again the drive was on a rough road and I felt a sense of guilt every time the driver cringed as a boulder hit the underside of the car. It was worth it though. It was much cooler than the rest of the Island and it was protected from the wind. I followed the path of a wadi about 8km into the mountains. Most of it had running water which made the scenery much more interesting than around Manakhah. I probably could have followed it close to the top of Jebel Mashanig at 1519m the highest point on the Island. However as I got further up the wadi the boulders would get large and larger and I was having top get more and more creative to get passed. I didn't fancy walking back to camp with a broken leg after having fallen 3m. Also, I had felt a few drops and didn't fancy walking back in the rain. That night we camped on a plain next to the wadi. I shared a goat (the whole goat) and rice with a very nice couple from Germany for dinner.
The next day was abit quiet. I was a bit over it and I think Ahmed was running out of places to take me. I spent the morning walking along a beach looking at th washed up shells, some the size of a football, some mobile. Spent the afternoon hiking up an other wadi in the Hager Mountains, much the same as the last one. I spent my last night on Socotra at a Hotel in Hadibu. Partly because Ahmed had no where else to take me but mostly so I could have a much needed shower and clean all the sand out of everything I had with me.
It was a good week. Socotra was easily the nicest part of Yemen in terms of scenery. The people were nice but more reserved than on the mainland. Especially the women and children who would shy away when ever I approached. Maybe it was because they didn't speak English or Arabic. Socotran is the mother tongue on the Island and Arabic is only taught at school which would explain why when they did speak to me it was with there newly learnt Arabic not English. This worked out great for me as it was to nice to have a conservation (not a long one) with someone of the same level as me for a change. Most of the people that spoke English were in Tourism and they all seemed to have learned English from the same teacher, an Australian by the name of the Matt. They all asked if I knew him, I didn't.
The car and driver thing worked out too. We did frequent the same shitty restaurant. It might have been the best or the only in town, I don't know. To his credit Ahmed did get visibly pissed off at the staff when they didn't treat me like the locals that ate there. We always shared meals that I would pay for, he would cook. He put his car through hell for my benefit and even tried to teach me Socotran. It is completely different from Arabic, even the basics are hard to pick up. In the end Ahmed was driver, guide, cook, translator and teacher. I learned later that twice a week he also works at the airport. I rarely tip but didn't hesitate.
After a sleepless night on account of the fan not working and having to get up 6am to catch a flight this would probably be as frustrated as I get, if it wasn't so funny. Not laugh out loud funny, you know, Seinfeld funny. At least this driver was honest.
It was a short flight to Al Riyan over what people think of when they think of Yemen. If i wasn't going to Socotra I would have been down there right now sharing the front seat of a taxi with the fattest men in Yemen being felt up by the driver every time he changed gears which on a hilly winding road would have been often on a drive that would have resembled the drive from anywhere twelve hours away from Port Augusta to Port Augusta. Instead I was 8km up drinking tea and eating cake which incidentally is more than what you get with BA ( Bugger All, I mean British Airways). After a quick drop off and pick up in Al Riyan it was another short skip across the water to Socotra Island, a remote Island somewhere off the coast of Somalia.
Given it remoteness i was fully expecting it be a bit behind the mainland. This was confirmed when the plane chased a goat of the runway when it came into land. Given my preparation for this part of the trip (none) I wasn't sure what I was going to do but after chatting to a few people I ended up for better or worse hiring a driver for the week. After a few bad ones I've become weary of tours of any description. He took me to a restaurant for lunch, I wasn't over charged so it wasn't a bad start.
The first night we camped where a fresh water stream met the ocean under a sand dune on the east coast of the Island.
The morning of day two and I went to see a cave which went about 5km into the side of a mountain. Most of it was dead but not all of it. It was still quite impressive and made a change to have a cave to yourself and torch with no floodlight, no board walks and no names like the 'cathedral' bolted to the falls. After that I head to Di Hamri protected area for a pit of a peek under the water. The reef wasn't brilliant but the quantity and diversity of fish life was as good as I've seen anywhere. This included three dolphins playing piggy in the middle with a bit of scrap tin, pretty cool. I camped on the beach again and had the fish that I just spent the afternoon gawking over for dinner.
The next morning I hiked with my driver to a fresh water pool near Homil. Old Italian men in budgie smugglers aside you would be hard pressed to find a swimming pool anywhere with a better view. From here it was a shorter hike to Homil for lunch and a quick walk around the grove of dragons blood trees. In the afternoon we drove across the island to Qalanshah. Animals aside the scenery reminded me a lot of sub Saharan Africa. For two nights I camped on the edge of a lagoon. Very pretty. Again more sea life than I expected. A walk though the knee deep water revealed small fish, stingrays, thousands of crabs, puffer fish, an eel and even what I thought was a juvenile sea snake. It may just have been a long thin eel, I'm not sure. Keeping with the routine I had fish for dinner, bough from one of the many boats in the nearby village.
On day four we drove across the Diksam plain to the south of the Island. En route we stopped at another fresh water pool for a swim. This one was at the bottom of a canyon. I almost felt embarrassed for what the driver put his car through just so I could go for a swim. The 'road' was cut into the side of a valley. It must have been a brave man to come down here in a car for the first time. Of course coming down was the easy part, after the swim we had to go back up the same way. For something that is essentially volcanic rock you wouldn't expect much plant life on the Diksam plain but in every crack in the rock there seemed to be something growing from it. Mostly Socotran Croton Croton but occasionally the Socotran desert rose. It has a massive swollen trunk with tiny branches and a few leaves and stunning pink flowers. That night we camped again on the beach at Aksum on the south coast of the island.
In the morning the wind had picked up and you wouldn't have guessed there was a mountain range separating the north and south coasts. We drove back across the Diksam plain to a valley in the Hager Mountains. Again the drive was on a rough road and I felt a sense of guilt every time the driver cringed as a boulder hit the underside of the car. It was worth it though. It was much cooler than the rest of the Island and it was protected from the wind. I followed the path of a wadi about 8km into the mountains. Most of it had running water which made the scenery much more interesting than around Manakhah. I probably could have followed it close to the top of Jebel Mashanig at 1519m the highest point on the Island. However as I got further up the wadi the boulders would get large and larger and I was having top get more and more creative to get passed. I didn't fancy walking back to camp with a broken leg after having fallen 3m. Also, I had felt a few drops and didn't fancy walking back in the rain. That night we camped on a plain next to the wadi. I shared a goat (the whole goat) and rice with a very nice couple from Germany for dinner.
The next day was abit quiet. I was a bit over it and I think Ahmed was running out of places to take me. I spent the morning walking along a beach looking at th washed up shells, some the size of a football, some mobile. Spent the afternoon hiking up an other wadi in the Hager Mountains, much the same as the last one. I spent my last night on Socotra at a Hotel in Hadibu. Partly because Ahmed had no where else to take me but mostly so I could have a much needed shower and clean all the sand out of everything I had with me.
It was a good week. Socotra was easily the nicest part of Yemen in terms of scenery. The people were nice but more reserved than on the mainland. Especially the women and children who would shy away when ever I approached. Maybe it was because they didn't speak English or Arabic. Socotran is the mother tongue on the Island and Arabic is only taught at school which would explain why when they did speak to me it was with there newly learnt Arabic not English. This worked out great for me as it was to nice to have a conservation (not a long one) with someone of the same level as me for a change. Most of the people that spoke English were in Tourism and they all seemed to have learned English from the same teacher, an Australian by the name of the Matt. They all asked if I knew him, I didn't.
The car and driver thing worked out too. We did frequent the same shitty restaurant. It might have been the best or the only in town, I don't know. To his credit Ahmed did get visibly pissed off at the staff when they didn't treat me like the locals that ate there. We always shared meals that I would pay for, he would cook. He put his car through hell for my benefit and even tried to teach me Socotran. It is completely different from Arabic, even the basics are hard to pick up. In the end Ahmed was driver, guide, cook, translator and teacher. I learned later that twice a week he also works at the airport. I rarely tip but didn't hesitate.
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