Milestone 12 -Distance: 2,167.9 km (44.4%) – 30 March 2021
We continue in a westerly direction across the Yemen – this time taking a detour and once again heading for the coast.
At Al Mukalla we’ll hop onto a ship heading out into the Arabian Sea to visit the island of Socotra, a ‘safe haven’ in the sense that the Yemeni Civil War has not reached this shore as yet we believe.
This island, the largest of an archipelago of four islands, is a dichotomy of a beautiful tropical island and an alien world.
Socotra lies closer to Somalia than it does the Yemen, and due the fact that it was left to its own devices millions of years ago, it has been able to develop over 700 endemic species of flora and fauna in peaceful isolation.
Many of the plants have rather unusual appearances and would perhaps be more at home on another planet!
There is a glut of places of natural beauty to visit here from crystal clear lagoons surrounded by white sands, to salt mines and some great hiking treks in the mountains but I’m heading in search of the famous crazy looking Dragon Blood Trees, endemic to Socotra, which bleed red when cut…Welcome to the Twilight Zone!
Keep a look out for pirates – and I’m not taking about fiction or Captain Hook 🙂
