18th January 2024 - Komodo island and dragons
A lifetime ambition achieved!
Dodgy life belt
This was the final day of our holiday before we left for Jakarta and the return flight. The start was very early and we thought that it was because Komodo island was a long way away.
We were taken down to the harbour with two other couples and from there we quickly boarded our boat which must have had about twenty people on it.
The staff asked us to sit below deck, but when we said we'd prefer to sit outside, we were ushered to the upper deck with the captain. We're not sure why we were allowed to do this but other people weren't. Two other couples joined us now and then. One a newly married couple on their honeymoon with henna'd hands and feet and clearly very much in love.
The boat headed out into the sea, where we came across a field of floating plastic bottles and other waste.
There were plenty of small islands and we eventually stopped at one. We had to wade through the waves to the beach. It was here that we paid the entrance to the Komodo National Park.
There was a walk up to the top of the island where there was a view. Unfortunately Kevin's foot had swollen so we only went as far as the second view point before making our way down to where there was a beach with a family of deer resting in the shade. They seemed un-phased by the human presence and studiously ignored us.
Joan saw what looked like a humming bird near the rangers hut. Like so many day tours we have been on, all the trips arrive at roughly the same time so it can get crowded.
Back on the boat we then headed to another beach where we stopped off for snorkelling and swimming. This really wasn't what we were expecting and we stayed on board, hiding in the shade, slightly impatient to see the dragons.
After what seemed like an age, we finally headed towards Komodo island. There was a harbour where we docked and walked along the quay to the entrance where there was a statue of an ora AKA Komodo dragon.
On arrival we were assigned two rangers to accompany us. Slightly worrying, the only protection they seemed to have were sticks.
The older guide explained that there were dragons nearby and that we would go and see them first as they can move around.
And then, slumped on its belly, in the shade of a tree was the first of five dragons we saw. The Komodo dragon is a type of Monitor Lizard. It is about 3 metres in length and weighs about 150 kg. Worringly, they can run at 12 mph!
They lay in wait for their prey adn can rear up on their hind legs and knock out their prey with their tail. Their saliva and bit is full of toxic bacteria that can thin their victim's blood so they slowly bleed to death. They can stalk their prey for up to a week before devouring them. Locally their main source of food was boar and deer. We were reassured that they had caught and eaten a boar a few days before so were less likely to attack.
Our guide was very concerned about Kevin's foot and kept the group pace down. Most of the dragons were in the shade, or hiding beneath buildings but one set off on the go and the guide grabbed Joan's phone and got a great video of it moving, its forked tongue flicking in and out.
They are magnificent creatures and we are so luck to have seen them in their natural habitat. There are about 1500 on Komodo and they also inhabit 3 other islands.
After seeing the dragons we headed for a short walk into the bush. It was very hot and some of our group gave up. We were shown a water hole (allegedly) where the dragons lay in wait for their prey.
Returning to the beach we saw one of the deer that the dragons are so keen on eating.
Our stay on Komodo was about an hour. It was very hot, but we had two more stops on the way back for more snorkelling and swimming. We were tired and a bit grumpy as we hadn't known about these stops. But, we were by several decades, the oldest on the boat and the day trip seemed more geared up to a younger audience.
The scenery though was picture postcard perfect though. We half expected a Bond villain to appear in a motor boat.
Back at Labuan, we headed back to our bamboo house before heading out to the Happy Banana Japanese restaurant where we had a Protein packed Poke bowl and watched the rain thrashing down. There were lots of hardened backpackers there, trying to out do each other with their intrepid travels.
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