Wadi Ayhaft

Flying to Socotra

I got picked up at 0230 to go to the airport.  I had only landed there less than 24h ago.  Today, we are bound for Socotra or Suqutra.  Note:  The spelling for the island and the various places on it can vary greatly.

Socotra?  It’s an island that’s part of Yemen (south of the mainland) but just off Somalia in the Horn of Africa.  The island has been described as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.  It seems a bit cliché to call it an island paradise but little did I realise that it would be an amazing week of sun, sea, white sand, picnics, camping and star-lit skies at night.

There were four of us:  Marie, Kristina, Lou and myself.  Only the two men had confirmed tickets.  Our friend Huda had come along to the airport to help with the process of securing tickets for the women.

As Marie was the initiator of the trip, it seemed wrong that I would go with her friend Lou and she would get left behind.  Huda tried to get my ticket changed over to her name but it wasn’t possible.

So about 90 mins before departure, Lou and I checked in.  Huda continued to help Marie and Kristina with securing seats.  In the end, the airline found seats for them presumably because of some no-shows.  We later learned that in fact, the airline put them on while Huda sorted out the ticketing and payment on their behalf.

Lou and I went airside and onboard.  We were stressed that Marie and Kristina may not make it.  And I guess they would have been even more stressed about themselves not making it.  The relief was unreal when Marie and Kristina finally joined us on board.

The Yemenia 737-800 flight took an hour to get to Riyan (Mukalla’s airport).  We were on the ground for 45 minutes before continuing to Socotra.  It was a long wait for my luggage; I was the only one that brought a checked-in item.

First sights

Our driver Omar took us to Hotel Summerland in the island’s capital Hadiboh.  Lou and I shared a room.  The toilet was remarkably clean!  Very unlike Yemen.  We noticed that there were some diving gear, suggesting that there were divers around.

We sorted out our payments with Mohammad, the agency rep who came along with us on the flight.  We kinda gave our money to him begrudgingly as he hadn’t been much help at Sana’a Airport with our ticketing hassles.  In fact, he turned up late.

Our first excursion was to Wadi Ayhaft.  The valley was dotted with many strange trees, some with purple trunks.  The cliffs were strange as well and appeared to have large chunks or cubes missing.

After some fish for lunch, we returned to our room for a rest.  It was meant to be a 90 min rest but all of us fell asleep.  I woke at 1600 when we should have been down a ride to the beach and a swim at 1530.  I guess the early wake-up this morning, and longhaul flying wore me out.  As for the others, it was the early start from Sana’a.

Our driver Omar was pretty cool with us not turning up for the outing.  I think it would have been to Delisha Beach, the nearest one to Hadiboh.

We reconvened for dinner of chicken around 1900.