Socotra island is a place most have never heard of. It holds a strange sense of peace and quiet, 400 kilometers off the coast of the Yemeni mainland closer to Somalia. While an extremely tragic civil war has been happening on mainland Yemen since 2014, Socotra has remained safe and largely insulated from the conflict – yet also mostly cut off from the rest of the world.
Its isolation, both historically and currently, is somewhat of a gift. For nature lovers, it is one of the most unique and still untouched destinations in the world. Socotra has been called “the Galapagos of Arabia”. In 2008 it was recognized as a UNESCO Heritage site because of its biodiversity with rich and distinct flora and fauna: 37% of Socotra’s 825 plant species, 90% of its reptile species found nowhere else on Earth.
Join Chelsea Kauai and PiersonX on their one-week tour of Socotra, where they camped all around the island. Their intention with this film was to capture the beauty of the natural landscapes—the alien looking Dragon trees, emerald-colored freshwater canyons, and snow-like sand dunes—and the way those landscapes evoke a kind of otherworldly magic so unlike what most people think of when they see the word Yemen.
Credits: A Film by @piersonx and ChelseaKauai