Trans-Socotra Island, On Foot

On 11^th Feb 2011, with a hired Socotri guide named Saad, I have succeeded in crossing the Socotra Island, from north to south, Hadibu to Aomak beach, merely on foot, in 3-day time.

No porter. No camel. No standard route. No exact trail. No guarantee of smooth journey.

At the first day, I waited in the hotel I stayed in Hadibu’s 26^th street at 6.00am, with my small bagpack side strapped with my own tent and sleeping bag, where Saad met me up after half an hour, in a pair of slippers(!) and a sleeping bag in a plastic bag. Saad is not a true guide. He is just a 20 year-old student in which his root still can be traced to the mountain area in central highland of Socotra. I have stocked up all the necessary supplies and food for 2 persons for 4 days including bread, cheese, canned tuna, biscuits and bottles of water from the souq the night before. Saad also brought his cakes. He offered to carry the necessities where I put in a plastic bag but I refused initially not because I was kind-hearted or trying to flaunt around but because he didn’t even bring a bag to stuff those. However, I succumbed finally after suffering the weight and distributed those between us.

Hadibu

We started our trek by walking from Hadibu towards a hill in the west where the telecommunication tower located, arriving the so-called starting point for mountain hike after approximately an hour upon crossing wadis, farms and lots of small and fairly separated bushes. From the starting point, there is a camel/donkey route with scrambling rocks which leads up all the way to a small plateau under looking group of pinnacles generally called Skand. The hiking route was relatively easy but I still need to make a few stops en route due to the scorching hot sun and also to rejunavate my stamina. We reached the plateau after 5 hours of hiking from the foothill and sat under an Acacia tree dotted with cow’s dung to have our lunch. To reach the Skand campsite from the plateau, you have to prepare yourself not only because it is a very steep uphill but also you have to squat, crouch down, and squeeze yourself among scrubby bushes and trees. No route, no trail, no space and no people! However, we made it eventually after an ill-fated hike, but only to find out that our efforts didn’t get paid off as clouds shadowed our bird’s eye view over Hadibu and other parts of the island! From here, you can see the highest peak but it is inaccessible as it is of granite pinnacles. You can skip Skand campsite and continue your trek further south as it is a 2-way hike and down route. I spent the first night in Saad’s village in a place called La-Hnaten which is on a small plateau surrounded by Skand and Haggerhir Mountain, about 3 hours easy trek from Skand campsite. His brothers prepared the dinner which was plain rice with rawba(I think it is some kind of fermented goat milk) and as usual, milk tea and/or mint tea. I slept in his century-old stone house, very old and very tatty, together with his brothers very early, around 8.00pm, as you can imagine, there was no light when night falls. His grandfather, in his 50s or 60s, who is still traveling within the mountainside on foot everyday to herd a herd of goats and sheep, slept in another stone house nearby. It was so much lovely to have appreciated his chanting of old folk song while wading within the mountain, even miles away!

Skand, viewed from the starting point of our trekking

Scrubby bushes

Green plateau

Uninhabited stone house

Skand campsite neighbourhood

Saad, overlooking overcast Hadibu

Overshadowed bird's eye view

Highest peak is inaccessible

La-Hnaten

Saad's century old stone house

Saad's younger brother

We set off again the next morning around 6.30am, arriving in a wide valley under looking Saad’s village in the north, where his grandfather’s chant of herding was still wafting in the air. Saad asked me to swim and took a bath in a wadi pool full with green water while he had a chat with one of the herdsman. I looked at the wadi and said NO, politely, not because I can’t swim(In fact, I can’t!) but I didn’t want to exchange a short moment of refreshment with any possible skin disease. I still have long way to go. After nearly 3 hours trek surmounting a few wadis and low summits, we arrive in a village in a high plateau at the edge of Firmin Forest saturated with hundreds of thousands of Dragon’s Blood tree. It was noon time when we took a rest under a lone yet huge Dragon’s Blood tree which perfectly acted as a huge umbrella blocking the unrelenting sun. While Saad took out his Arabic-English glossary book to read which was his routine practice every time we took a break, we were invited a lunch in one of Socotran’s stone house. Again, it was rice with rawba and milk tea and/or mint tea but it was delicious and appeared luxurious to me! After taking a break which lasted for 2 hours listening to Saad chatting with the villagers in Socotri language that almost dragged me to fall asleep in a cushion I was lying on, we waved good bye and continued our journey to pay a visit to the Dragon’s Blood tree awaiting me since the moment I stepped my foot in Socotra Island. Finding myself getting lost(at least psychologically) in the Firmin Forest surrounded by Dragon’s Blood trees was indeed an once-in-a-life-time experience which I would never forget! Saad just left me alone at the back while he continued further south but I didn’t even care. What I cared at that moment was to find strategic spots to frame the stunning and otherworldly view into my camera to keep memory alive and forever! After satisfying myself in Firmin Forest snapping photos till I dropped which I was quite reluctant to leave, Saad urged me to go. We then continued in a full scale of downhill trek until a familiar wadi dotted with villagers’ stone houses appeared to our line of sight. It was the wadi -  Wadi Daerhur where I saw just a couple of miles away from the green pool which I refused to swim! Poor me to go in an up-and-down trek just to have a glance of the Dragon’s Blood tree! It was 4.00pm when we sat down on a sea of cobblestone in a dry wadi bed, around 1km from the village. What was Saad thinking? Were we going to sit there and waited to be invited to spend a night in one of the stone house? “Mafi Musykila” I spoke to Saad and pointed my finger to my tent and sleeping bag. If that was all about privacy and local sensitivity, we just camped wildly. It was not a problem for me. Right before Maghrib, we walked towards the village where Saad talked to one of the elder named Abdullah en route in Socotri. After a moment, I found myself sitting beside Saad on a mattress laid on sandstone in the courtyard of a tidy stone house, with tea served in front of our crossed-legs and also kids with great, I meant really great, curiosity. I was like a piece of rare exhibition in a museum’s cabinet being watched and scanned into eternity. The women in the house were not as isolated and secluded as those found anywhere else in Yemen. Yes, they did wear niqab but they took dinner(rice with rawba and milk tea and/or mint tea again) with all of us and even joined the so-called men’s talk. It further surprised me when they started lying down on the mat in front of man guests during the after-meal chat session. Abdullah was a very humorous Socotran full with motion whom you would never judge by his exterior appearance. While Ali, a neighboring kid with high curiosity kept on making a joke on him, he tried to explain to me in his very limited poor English yet with full motion of body language how he was being hit by a 4X4 car driven by a Russian girl (2 times by the same girl at the same place!) while crossing the street in Hadibu. He had no sign of infirmness when I firstly met him except that he needs a crutch. Out of sudden, I felt that the entire environment was so peaceful that I afraid I would be more reluctant to leave this magical island. After a series of chatting and joking among themselves, it was the time to say good night. Due to a self-misunderstanding which started with the issue of local privacy and convenience, I ended up spending my second night on a mattress in the open-air courtyard, alone. Saad slept in the room with comfortable blankets! But it was still OK as I had hundreds of thousands of stars accompanying me all night long.    

Firmin Forest

Dragon's Blood Tree

Saad and I, in Wadi Daerhur, Feb' 2011

The women woke up very early the next morning, as well as the men, at least earlier than me who always has the difficulty to wake up early (Haha…). The women started to prepare breakfast – Khobz while the men started their daily herding life. Wow! What I can say about the Khobz? It was very fresh and was undoubtedly the most delicious Khotz I have ever taken in the entire Yemen! Saad told me before and it was true! We then continued our journey by hiking up a very steep hill right in front of the village. Again, the flora of Socotra Island stunned me and stopped me from further trekking. It was the stumpy Desert Rose! I let Saad waiting for me in the far south while I wandered around on the plateau, in search of the most beautiful Desert Rose. After series of easy trekking, we reached another plateau of very weird landscape full with weathered rock and eroded stone. A combination of Dragon’s Blood tree and Desert Rose further enhanced the surreal scene. We then took a shade in a poorly constructed but with good aeration stone house on a plateau at noon time where the villagers offered tea and in return we offered canned tuna, bread and biscuits. Those are poor but generous and hospitable Socotrans. It had been long time since the last time I saw people finishing up their food by licking the plastic and can. Initially we planned our trek in 4-day time but I requested Saad to make it in 3-day time as Aomak beach was reachable from here in the same day. Saad agreed and we started a non-stop fast trek, passing through mostly gentle plateaus and 4X4 trails for around 3 hours until we trekked along a wadi and the plain of Nojed finally appeared to us, with Aomak beach located further west. It was an almost vertical downhill trek from the cliff to the plain and it was indeed very painstaking if you choose to trek from the other direction.

Desert Roses

Dragon's Blood Tree

Socotran

Stone house

Nojed plain

There was still another 2 hours trek from the foothill to Aomak beach with totally no shade and very expose to sun with very less car passing by. Hey! Why do you want to hitchhike? You will be breaking the feat!

I spent my third night in Aomak beach before taking a bus back to Hadibu the following morning while Saad left to his house in Hadibu, succumbing to exhaustion and heatstroke. I gave my tent to him, as he requested earlier, to make up a full set of tent-and sleeping bag camping gears as he couldn’t get one even with money in this isolated island and I still can get one when I reached Aden in the mainland of Yemen. It was a simple hope that he can carry out further guiding for mountain hike in the future in a more comfortable and self-protective way.

To be honest, the whole experience is more to personal as it varies for each guide and where he comes from. Though it will be a very challenging and very much self-accomplishing experience to trek and hike without a guide, but I still recommend to take one because of only one reason: you need to find the source of water. If you trek with a local guide, he will normally bring you to spend the nights in his or his friends’ villages and that save you for bringing a tent and a sleeping bag but if you don’t, it is better to bring along one set of tent-and-sleeping bag.