SOCOTRA

Socotra, a Yemeni island between the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa, is a jewel of biodiversity and the most magic place I have ever experienced. The island is a remnant of the Earth’s last supercontinent Gondwana, and you have to wonder if this was what Planet Earth looked like before the Anthropocene? It looks otherworldly and trembles with a mystery and meditative beauty that I am very drawn to.

So far, Socotra has been preserved from the civil war in Yemen. The island is cut off from the rest of the world. It’s hard to get there, and hard to get around. Which is also part of the reason why the place looks so pristine. With its huge lonely sand dunes, limestone plateaus, karst landscapes and granite mountains, the unique and spectacular nature hosts nearly 700 plants and animals that are found nowhere else on earth. 

The island’s name may be derived from sanskrit, meaning “island of bliss”, which resonates with the mental state it left me with both times I went there.