We woke up a little before 05:00.  There wasn’t much of a sunrise, but there were mountains to the east, so this wasn’t much of a surprise.  The tide was quite low this morning, and so the lagoon was substantially smaller.  When Justin went wandering around, on his way back to camp he saw Abdullah the fisherman taking his daily walk to his cave.  We had a light breakfast since neither of us wanted the beans that were prepared - that seemed like a poor choice before a half day boat trip.  We went over to Qalansiyah around 06:30 to get on a fishing boat at the beach.  In addition to the fishermen, there were lots of kids around, trying to sell us stuff, including a massive (live) crab.  Isa was there too, and she got on the first boat to leave whilst we were on the second.

We headed southwest towards the southwest tip of the island.  There were large cliffs, looking to be out of either limestone and/or sandstone, along the shoreline.  Maybe 15 minutes after we left the beach we saw a pod of dolphins, we think spinner dolphins.  Many were jumping, but seemingly never where the camera was pointed.  Adham was very good at calling them to come closer, by whistling at them.  After about 15 minutes we continued on our way to Shu’ab.

The water was a beautiful turquoise, and the towering sea cliffs looked perfect for sea birds, but we realized we hadn’t really seen any.  We asked Adham, and he said there were lots of cormorants, but that they leave around this time of year to avoid the windy season.  We later saw a good amount of bird shit on the cliffs, evidence they were around at least part of the year.  It took about an hour to get to the beach.

Shu’ab Beach was pretty much perfect, with a long sweeping crescent of white sand, small waves, large hills in the background, and a kaleidoscope of blues in the water.  Even from the shore we saw a bunch of fish in the water, including jumping fish.  There were also lots of crabs going out to sea.  We walked south towards a big bend in the beach that didn’t seem to get much closer as we continued to walk.  Along the way we passed by an area with pitted limestone that was green from algae, with crabs abounding there.

We debated whether this was the best beach we’ve been to.  If it’s not, it’s on the short list with Manafiafy Beach in Madagascar, Long Beach in Palau, and the beach in Amanpulo.  We went in the water, and it was noticeably cooler than the lagoon, a very comfortable temperature.  We saw more dolphins, we’re fairly confident a different group, which went by us right near the shore.  Crystal eventually laid down under a mangrove tree for a little rest, and Justin walked to the north end where there were some rocks along the shore.  Some of Russian tourists, who’d shown up about 30 minutes after us, were trying to take IG glamour shots - it was hilarious to see how things look “behind the scenes.”  Before we left Justin took some photos and videos with the GoPro since it had a wider angle lens.  Because we didn’t know exactly how the boat trip would be, we hadn’t brought our normal cameras, just the oldest Sony (that fits in the underwater case) and the GoPro.

On the way back, the fisherman dropped a line behind the boat, and after a while caught a travely (sp?), then almost immediately a huge snapper, then a bonito.  We wondered if not only did we pay to cover his “lost wages” for the day, but also the deal was that he still got to fish a bit on the ride back.  No matter the financial arrangement, we were fascinated by his ability to catch such large fish with such relatively rudimentary equipment.  Additionally, there was more amazing scenery on the ride back, with some clouds forming in the sky.  Back at Qalansiyah, there were two kids in a rickety looking boat that they made themselves out of a barrel they cut in half.

Back at camp we had lunch, with fish and rice for Crystal, potatoes and rice for Justin.  After Justin went on a stroll around the lagoon.  It ended up being a lot longer than he expected, as things looked closer than they actually were.  After going around the south end of the lagoon, and heading towards the Arabian Sea coastline, Justin found a second smaller lagoon on the west side, between the coast and the lagoon, with some very loose sand that was basically quicksand - he fell in halfway up to his knees.  Once finally at the coastline, there were lots of mounds made by crabs on the spit of sand between lagoon and sea.  From across the lagoon, it was easy to make out Abdullah's cave on the hillside.  On the walk back, Justin noted that his feet were starting to sunburn, and moreover that a blister was forming on the top of his left foot, and all the sand on his sandals and feet weren’t helping.

Back at camp, Crystal had been chatting with Isa’s guide, and Justin briefly joined the chat, but then went to put the green aloe stuff on his feet.  When he came back just a few minutes later, many of the guides of the various tourist groups were there, laughing.  Apparently they’d just walked over from one of the cabanas with the big Russian tour group, and everyone was laughing at a political discussion they’d just had.  Adham was giving some of the Russian women the business, telling them their military equipment is old and shitty and that’s why the war isn’t going well, not because of the crazy conspiracy theories they were spouting.  

They had told Adham that the war was necessary because the US is building a chemical weapons plant in Ukraine to use against the Russians.  Sometimes we wonder about people’s critical thinking skills.  If the US was building a chemical weapons plant, why would it pick Ukraine, as opposed to one of the various NATO countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia that border Russia?  Anyway, this is why Fox News and others are so dangerous; if enough people believe that crap, and if all legitimate news is forbidden, people are (apparently) dumb enough to believe just about anything and not question it.

We chatted for a while with all the guides, and simultaneously Justin backed up our photos and videos onto the hard drive and a usb stick.  As it got closer to sundown it got increasingly cloudier and windier.  Adham told us this was his last trip of the tourist season (September to early May, normally), and he was doing some remodeling next week with a worker he’d hired.  Crystal started  reading, and Justin went to get his book as well.  But then we started chatting with Adham again.  The topics were all over the map.  In no particular order, we talked about:

• Saudi Arabia and its increasing “openness,” but also about the murder of Jamal Kashoggi and MBS’s purported involvement in it
• When Adham still lived with his parents, Abdullah’s family was a neighbor 
• How US people would be very surprised to know all the stuff we’d seen exists on one small island
• How his older daughter didn’t want a sister, but rather a brother, and some similarities this had with when Crystal was growing up
• Stories about people drinking the water and it not turning out well
• At his new place, there isn’t much water above ground, and a well can’t go deep enough to get to the groundwater below
• Gardening is tough on Socotra, and that people char things to help make fertilizer, bury fish parts, etc., but that wind can ruin everything after a year of hard work 

Dinner was reef shark (which kind of looked like ground turkey), bonito, and some spicy rice.  We chatted a bit after dinner, then went to the tent.  Once inside, however, about 10-15 meters away from our tent the next group of guests were playing loud shitty Russian music.  And about 30-40 meters away from our tent there was an even bigger group that was trying to outdo their shitty music.  After about 15 minutes a drum party broke out right by our tent.  We laughed at the absurdity of it, and we weren’t going to yell at someone for playing music before 21:00.  Somehow we were able to fall asleep despite all this; we have no idea how long the music kept going.