Socotra

I did so much work in my first two weeks in Yemen that I absolutely deserved a three day holiday with some friends and colleagues to the island paradise of Socotra.  This is one of the most ridiculous places on the planet - canyons, soaring cliffs, stalactite-sprouting caves and ten-storey sand dunes jostle for position in a landmass that would probably prove to be about the same size as Long Island if I bothered looking it up.

Two hooligans ruining the stunning view of Qalansiya lagoon

Another feature of the island that is a good effort is that a third of its plant life exists nowhere else on earth.  Best are the dragon's blood trees and the desert roses, which I believe were both invented by Salvador Dali.

Desert roses - good for laughing at, bad for hiding behind

A trip on a fishing boat around a headland to a deserted beach was a highlight - turquoise bath-hot water, snorkelling on a reef with parrot fish, watching dolphins doing that cliched dolphin in-and-out-of-the-water thing by our boat, catching plump kingfish for our lunch, laughing at our friend who caught the world's smallest fish in some of the richest fishing waters in the world and playing football on the beach.  Most wondrous of all was how a group of six people could get so sunburnt in so many unusual parts of their bodies.

Some of Socotra's magnificent wildlife

It was fish for every meal, and our guide was even kind enough to take all the bones out after witnessing the chimps' tea party we turned the meal into on the first evening.  You really can't go wrong with fresh fish on the beach, and in fact the worst food we had was two Herculean lobsters we got from a fisherman on day two.

Dragon's blood tree - pretty much the only shade in Socotra

We camped on the beach.  The heat of the sun was such that we were up at about 6 every morning, so we would tend to do a full day's activities, wonder if it was dinner time and discover it was 11.30 am.  We did so much swimming, walking, climbing and vigorous suncream-applying that sleep was never a problem, and the group would drift off on the beach under abundant stars listening to crickets and the sound of one of the group explaining the origin of shooting stars to his neighbour with astonishing inaccuracy.

Off for a swim with a nice sea view.  What a total dump.