Day 4: swimming in a natural infinity pool on Homhil Plateau
From Hadiboh, we drove up a really bad serpentine road. It was so steep that it looked unpassable. Our battered Toyotas crawled along it at a walking pace tilting from one side to the other. The drivers looked unperturbed as if it was a regular paved road. They even tried to overtake each other. Haimi, the driver of the car where I was sitting was especially competitive. He hated to be second and pressed forward like his honor was at stake.
The landscape changed as the car climbed up. While we were at sea level or just above it, we only saw bottle trees. Then gradually, they became mixed with the Socotra dragon trees that grow higher on the mountain slopes.
The dragon trees are famous for the unusual shape of their canopies and red sap that looks like blood. According to legend, the tree was created when a dragon was killed on the island, and its blood spilled onto the ground. The locals collect the sap, dry it and use for cosmetic and medicinal purposes. They were selling small plastic bags with powdered sap at the village where we left our cars before going to the natural pool. Here, we again had to hire a local guide at the village who walked with us to the pool.
The pool is filled by a small stream and rainwater. One day, the villagers found the pool empty. All water got drained through a hole in the pool’s bottom. They plugged the hole to prevent this from happening again. Since then, the pool water is not free-flowing anymore.
This camping had proper toilets and showers. We could wash ourselves and do the laundry. Our support team cooked an excellent dinner. We talked after it well past the sunset and carelessly left food leftovers on the tables. Socotra’s omnipresent goats had a good night party once we went to bed. They tore all packaging and ate everything edible scattering trash all over the place. In fact, these poor creatures are so omnivorous that we saw them chewing plastic and paper.
