At the western tip of Socotra, near the fishing village of Qalansiyah, the island ends in a lagoon of almost unreal beauty. Detwah lagoon is a shallow basin of white sand and turquoise water, enclosed by dunes and limestone headlands, where fishermen pull up their boats on the beach and dolphins sometimes swim in the bay beyond. Socotra lies in the Arabian Sea, about three hundred and fifty kilometres off the coast of Yemen and closer to the Horn of Africa, and it has been isolated for so long that a large share of its plants and animals exist nowhere else on earth. UNESCO listed the archipelago in 2008 for its extraordinary biodiversity.
The most famous of its strange plants is the dragon's blood tree, shaped like an umbrella turned inside out, whose red resin has been traded since antiquity as a dye, medicine and varnish. There are also bottle trees, swollen and pink-flowered, growing out of rock, and cucumber trees, the only tree-sized member of the cucumber family. Birds include several endemic species, and the coral reefs offshore are rich with fish.
For riders, Socotra is a place to be honest about. The island has a handful of paved roads built in recent decades, linking Hadibu, the main town, to the airport and to Qalansiyah, and beyond those there are rough tracks into the mountains and along the coast. There is no realistic way to bring your own motorcycle here; visitors usually travel with a local driver and guide, and tourism is organised through a few operators. Yemen's long-running conflict means government travel advisories against visiting remain in place in many countries, so check carefully before planning anything.
Qalansiyah itself is a small village with a few shops; fuel and supplies are concentrated in Hadibu, at the other end of the island. The monsoon from June to September brings strong winds and rough seas that make the island hard to reach, and the best time to visit is from October to April. Camping on the beach at Detwah, under a sky full of stars, with the sound of the sea and the wind in the dunes, is unforgettable.