​Earthlings Take Note: Socotra
Socotra is often described as the “most alien landscape on Earth.” And given its evolutionary exclusion from nearby mainland Africa and Arabia, it has cause to be: its flora is entirely distinct. But as our SUV heads out into the hills, I wonder if this flora is instead… fauna? The bushes look like stubby-fingered mannequins that have been misassembled and planted in the earth headfirst, and upon further imagination, could be an alien race hiding in plain sight, stock-still decoys that will flash attack at first whistle and defend their island. We are entering a trap!
In fact, so much could go wrong. We are ten tourists, two guides, and three cooks, trundling along in four vehicles over sharp rocks, on an island with no tourist facilities, and only a once-a-week flight in or out. To say nothing of hostile E.T.s. Only gas-powered camp lights, and solo late-night walks with headlamps to scout out sufficiently private holes for shitting in.
In short, a paradise.
No other word could so well describe our first morning outing, a skiff ride out around the bend from our bivouac to a beach cut off from all other entry. Facing the sea and hemming in our stretch of sand is a wall of mottled rock, dotted here and there with odd bushes (wink wink—they’re aliens). We spend hours snorkeling among old coral, the languid waves, the deafness and iridescence of underwater. This is the island’s north shore, sheltered from the Indian Ocean’s stronger currents and prime for relaxation, for soaking up Socotra, for letting go and hoping that once-a-week flight might just never come.
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