Surreal trees in the sky, desert roses in pink blossom, dreamy beaches, wild canyons and a sky covered with millions of stars… who wouldn’t want to experience the Garden of Eden, where mass tourism hasn’t yet invaded and get a glimpse of what the world was like before the advent of man? There are few places left in the world where this experience is as authentic as Socotra, so it’s no wonder more and more people are putting the island on their bucket list.
When I mentioned to people I knew that I was going to Socotra, all but a few looked at me with a questioning look: where is that? When they heard that it was part of Yemen, I saw even more shocked faces: but there’s a war on! Yes and no, I explained. While Yemen has been very hot in recent decades, one of the most fragile and poorest states in the world, Socotra has always been an island of peace. Although there are a few rusty tanks on the beach here and there, they were never used, only brought here as a show of force by Soviet troops in the 1980s. At the time, South Yemen was the only communist country in the region, and was therefore supported by the Russians.
Socotra is a little-known island in the Arabian Gulf, some 380 km off the coast of mainland Yemen. Although officially part of Yemen, the island has been under the strong influence of the United Arab Emirates since 2018. The archipelago includes four islands, one of which is completely uninhabited, two tiny islands with a few hundred inhabitants and the largest island, Socotra, with the majority of the population (60,000 people). The main island is 132 km long, which means that in theory it can be reached in a few hours – in practice, however, it is hardly possible, as tarmac roads are a very rare sight.
But why would anyone want to travel to Sokotra? Well, just look at a few photos of the island on the internet and it’s on the bucket list. The archipelago broke off from the African continent millions of years ago and its vegetation has evolved completely independently. According to the UNESCO, Socotra is on the World Heritage List for the following reason: “Socotra is important for biodiversity conservation worldwide because of its exceptionally rich and unique flora and fauna. Socotra has 37% of the world’s plant species, 90% of its reptile species and 95% of its land snail species are found nowhere else in the world”. I suspect that it is not the diversity of snails that attracts most tourists, but the trees: the most interesting of these are the dragon’s blood trees. These are the trees that have earned Socotra the title of the most extraordinary country in the world, but also the title of ‘Galapagos of the East’. But there are other interesting trees, such as the desert rose, the cucumber tree and the incense tree.
The archipelago is also well served with a variety of beaches, as two seas wash its shores: the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. You’ll find exciting canyons with refreshing cool-water lakes, stalactite-studded caves and snow-white sand dunes. It’s a dreamy, diverse island where tourism is in its infancy.
There are other reasons for this besides Yemen’s war reputation. For a long time, flights were only available from Cairo on the Yemenia, with a technical stopover in Aden or Seiyun. It is not only that the stopover is in war-torn Yemen, you cannot buy tickets for the flight online, only in person, in cash, at Yemenia offices. The alternative is a cement ship from the port of Salalah in Oman. Both the departure and the sailing time are completely uncertain, and there are no facilities for eating or cleaning on board – but there are rats.
Things have become much simpler since the launch of a flight from Abu Dhabi. This is an Emirates Aviation charter jet operated by Air Arabia. You can’t buy tickets online for this either, and it’s not worth searching online. It can only be obtained through Yemeni intermediaries who can also arrange the visa.
In the past, it was common for this only flight a week to be cancelled, leaving tourists stranded on the island with two choices: take the miserable boat trip or wait for the next flight. Fortunately, the Abu Dhabi connection is now fairly stable, and the number of flights has just recently been increased from one to two a week.
Just as you need a local tour operator to get the visa and buy the flights, you also need a local tour company to get around the island. Travelling on your own is almost impossible: there is no public transport, no cars for hire and hardly any roads. You need a jeep, local knowledge and very good driving skills. A further difficulty is that, apart from a few tourist professionals, almost no one on the island speaks English – so if you want to go it alone, you will have to speak Arabic, or even better, the foreign language used here, Semitic soqotri.
Each visitor comes for a week, so the tours are adapted to the Tuesday flight. Local companies take tourists around in jeeps, more or less on a standard route with the most exciting sights marked out.
Hotels, electricity, piped drinking water are only available in the capital, where everyone typically spends their first and last night. The intervening 5 nights during the island tour are absolutely nomadic, with transport, tents and full board provided by the tour companies.
Meals were very good and plentiful for the conditions. Almost every lunch and dinner was freshly caught fish with rice, vegetables and fruit. The latter fresh supplies, as well as ice for drinks, were bought every night in the capital, one of the drivers always turning there after dinner for supplies.
If one is really tired of camping, one can return each night to one of the two hotels in the “capital” in Hadibo, but the rudimentary roads make this a lot of unnecessary logistics. Not only does it involve a lot of extra driving, but those who always spend the evening here are missing out on the magnificent sunsets and sunrises, as well as the magical nights with millions of stars in the sky.
Everyone is always raving about Socotra, but as a responsible traveller I can’t get past a few obvious negatives.
The first and most important is the incredible amount of rubbish on the island. The situation is worst in the big city of Hadibo, but unfortunately it is not limited to there. Everywhere we went, even the most remote beaches and forests were littered with plastic bottles and nylon bags blowing in the wind. To top it all off, there was the extremely bad feeling that we had contributed to this. Since tap water is not considered safe for tourists, we were constantly drinking bottled water – we were throwing out at least 5 small half-litre bottles a day because of the heat. Although we collected these in large plastic bags in the camps, I couldn’t swear that they didn’t end up as litter somewhere later.
Also worrying is the lack of toilets. They are non-existent, here if someone has a small or big job to do, they simply find a bush and do it. I’m not naive enough to think that every tourist always digs a hole 10 centimetres deep for toilet paper – more likely they just throw it away. Although the war in Yemen has never spread to the island, it does have an indirect effect: investors are left behind. There are the dream beaches, but no one dares to invest here because the political status of Socotra is so uncertain. This is good for nature in some ways, of course, but it is a barrier to boosting tourism and creating local jobs.
That said, I believe that progress will not be stopped. The genie is out of the bottle, too many people already know about this wonderful Garden of Eden. The increase in flights from 1 to 2 flights a week was only the first step, Saudi and Emirati investors are ready to jump in to develop roads and hotels. Until there are better roads, tourists used to more comfortable, air-conditioned buses will not be able to get to the most beautiful places, but it is surely only a matter of time before this issue is resolved.
It is difficult to decide what will be more damaging: if nothing happens and only ‘eco-tourism’ produces the rubbish, or if the island develops and perhaps the rubbish is dealt with, but huge concrete buildings are erected. One thing is for sure – there are many threats to this garden of Eden as a result of tourism…
The article was originally published in National Geographic