Day 1
Day 2: hike to Kalysan canyon & bottle trees
In the morning, we packed everything and after a good breakfast drove east to Kalysan Canyon. There we saw our first bottle trees that are endemic to Socotra. We could not contain our excitement, stopped the cars and everyone rushed to take photos of the trees and with them.
The bottle trees were already blooming although it was early February. The flowers do not look especially beautiful, but the trees themselves are a wonder. They hardly have any leaves; their pink flowers stick out in all directions. The tree trunks are thick at the roots and get thinner closer to the top which makes them look like bottles, hence the plant name, and no two bottle trees are the same. Every tree has its own unique shape.
We left our cars at the canyon rim and hiked down to the stream at the bottom. The round-trip hike took about 2 hours and it was not difficult. We splashed in the fresh water of the stream for a long time and swam to a small waterfall at its end.
We learned that at this campsite there were no bathroom facilities of any kind. The toilets at the previous site were basic and not very clean, but at least we had something. The news came as a surprise. We all knew that our accommodation would be tents but it did not occur to us to ask about toilets. They should always be there.
The 8 men in our group took this fact calmly. The 5 women stood in shock and disbelief. Then 4 of us including me accepted the reality. If toilets did not exist in this place they could not magically appear, just deal with it. But one woman became quite upset. She pointed out that male and female anatomies are different. Women need to sit down to do their business and there was nothing to sit down on there. The men listened and wishing to show that they cared built a toilet seat for us on the beach.
In the end, everyone found their own way to resolve the bathroom issue. We stayed in the same place for another day and nobody raised this question again.
What a unique experience!!
Thanks, Erica! It was a fantastic trip. I knew I’d enjoy it but it was even better than I expected.