One of the most alien landscapes on Earth, and from the deck it looks like paradise: a sheltered bay of white sand and turquoise water, white limestone cliffs behind it, and dragon blood trees silhouetted along the ridge above.
Description
One of the most alien landscapes on Earth, and from the deck it looks like paradise: a sheltered bay of white sand and turquoise water, white limestone cliffs behind it, and dragon blood trees silhouetted along the ridge above.
The bay is also completely silent. No bird call, no insect noise, no animal sound of any kind, anywhere on the shore. It takes a while to notice, because silence is an absence and the mind fills it. The Shah Alam has watered here before without trouble, and Captain Aratoon said so without ceremony.
Notable Features
- The freshwater spring, a quarter mile inland at the base of the cliff, where the valley narrows to a cleft. Clear, cold, and issuing from a cave mouth ten feet across. A round trip with a cask load is the better part of an hour; watering the ship takes most of a day.
- The sterility. Nothing lives on this shore that can be seen or heard. The things in the cliffs have eaten it.
- The cliffs are riddled with cave entrances at ground level and thirty feet up, and the system behind them connects.
- Islanders. A native community lives elsewhere on the island and avoids this bay. During the search, Georgiana saw a small brown face with white paint dots watching from the tall grass at the beach edge — a child, not Jumman — and she and Ashby backed away without approaching. Nobody spoke to them and nothing came of it.
Connections
- Shah Alam anchored here on the passage from Suez to Bengal and put a watering party ashore under Serang Ismail.
- Jumman and Freddy were taken here and recovered from Socotra Limestone Caves.
- See Socotra Cave Rescue for the event.
Appearances
Relationships
- Caused Socotra Cave Rescue — The watering stop that cost the Shah Alam two men, both recovered