Here Be Dragons

Now as much as we would love to have stayed and hung out in the refreshing paradise of the Golo Hilltop Hotel, we are on a mission. We are on the hunt for the (usually) not-so-elusive Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizard.

So that meant an early morning wake-up call and a quick ride in a souped-up purple bemo down to the harbour to hop on our private yacht for an overnight excursion through the scenic Komodo Island National Park, a group of islands just off the western shores of Flores.

And by 'yacht', I mean boat. But it is private, and there are actually more staff on the boat than us, so we are feeling kind of posh in a backpacker sort of way.

Our trusty leader for our adventure is Joost, a local Flores guide who will accompany us on our journey. Don't ask me how he ended up with a Dutch name, but since most of Flores is actually Christian, I think there must be some colonial hangover when it comes to the names handed out to young Indonesian kids here. 

The islands are fairly spread out, which meant much of our trip would be on the boat sailing through the calm waters of the Flores Sea. But while the ride was smooth insofar as we did not need to deal with waves or swells, I have never seen such tempestuous waters in terms of strong and turbulent currents. There were whirlpools and eddies everywhere you looked.

This is due to the fact that certain parts of this park are located at points where the Indian Ocean meets the adjoining Flores Sea, and at different times of the day the two waters empty into each other, a literal sea change that drives extraordinary currents. While this area boasts some of the most phenomenal diving in the world, the dangers beneath the waves is the reason why Annie and I will not be enjoying it - just too treacherous. 

We'll just enjoy the view from above as we ply our way towards the island of Rinca and our first attempt at seeing the giant lizards.

The park here has been drawing visitors from all over the world for decades now, and we feel pretty fortunate to have made it. For visitors to Indonesia and Bali who are coming for a short vacation, it is a little off the beaten track, but if you have the time, I would highly recommend making the effort - it's worth the time and expense.

This is where we signed-in to provide the park rangers with all important personal details, including contact information for next-of-kin. These creatures have been known to kill humans, after all.

"Yes, the dragons especially love the taste of little boys"

But who's worried? We will be accompanied by our very own ranger, who will be ready to protect us with ..... a stick?! It turns out he wasn't joking about the little boy thing, as he later explained that one of the more recent fatalities involved an 8-year old boy from one of the villages on the island. The youngster, whose family home did not enjoy the modernity of running water and plumbing, ventured out to relieve himself at night and didn't return. His body, or parts of it, were discovered the following day. Stay close to the ranger.

Unfortunately, it's mating season for Komodo dragons right now, which means they are very difficult to see, as they spend most of the time out of view while they're 'doin bidness'. But lucky for us we were able to spot a few, including this giant. He is an adult male and is probably about 20 years old. This is one of my 'National Geographic' moments. As a kid I remember reading an old back issue from the 1960s and being wowed by these 'monsters'. Hard to believe I'm finally here.

So while the island was not teeming with lizards, we were able to see about six of the legendary beasts throughout the morning. This was impressive, of course, but what was nearly as enjoyable was the hiking on the island. The landscape was dotted with palm trees which Shirley pointed out was reminiscent of scenes from Dr Seuss's The Lorax.

See what I mean?

As we finished our visit and headed back to the boat, this young lizard decided we were interesting enough to follow. Not sure if he had any evil intentions, but we kept a close eye on him just in case. 

Here's a better view of our transportation (the boat behind Shirley). Nothing fancy but well enough equipped for our little excursion.

The boat was crewed by the skipper's sons, and their job was to keep us comfortable and well fed, and they did their job pretty well considering the surprising lack of kitchen equipment.

We've been on a number of boat rides during our six months on the road (and water), and a few of them involved on-board cooking. Both Shirley and I have noticed the amazing variety and quality of the simple dishes provided for us. This trip was no exception.

While we certainly weren't travelling first class, we felt utterly spoiled compared to the poor passengers on this boat, which seemed to be following us throughout the day, and which we mockingly referred to as the "Slum Boat". It was no larger than our vessel, but it had about 20 travellers, and all of them slept in that tiny space atop the stern (covered with the green siding). We asked Joost what the deal was, and he said it was a 4 day / 3 night trip from Flores back to Lombok, and it's a popular choice for those on a shoestring budget. I read about these in the Lonely Planet guidebook, which made a point of warning potential customers that these are often rickety boats which have been known to break down or sink. I might have considered this option in my youth, but nothing about that boat looked fun.

After a peaceful night sleeping among the other boats in a protected harbour, we made our second landfall at Komodo Island. This is actually the more visited island, and it has a fancy new pier which can accommodate large cruise ships (which apparently come about once per week), but the island is much larger and therefore the dragon concentration is not so great.

We heard a few tourists grumbling about not seeing very many Komodo dragons, or that they were really small, so we must have been the lucky ones, because after about 30 minutes of hiking we came across this monster. It was about 25 years old (I think our guide said they can live to 50) so they don't come much larger than this - about 3 meters.

This was about as close as we were allowed to get. The dragons look slow, and are often stationary and seem lethargic, but in a second they can reach their maximum speed of 20 km/h. So gotta watch out!

That's the closest Owen is going to get to petting a Komodo dragon.

The rest of the day was spent trying to find some manta rays, which sometimes congregate in significant numbers around the rocks here, but we were not lucky today. That would have been too much good fortune. Maybe another time. But it turned out to be a great place to stop and have lunch and just enjoy our surroundings. 

But all good things must come to an end, so it's back to Labuan Bajo harbour to finish the trip.

And so do we!

We had one more night at the Golo, and a morning of enjoying our favourite 'pool with a view'. Definitely sad to say goodbye, but we must fly back to Bali. In hindsight I wish I had set aside more time for Flores. In addition to the Komodo dragons, the area has plenty of other offerings which we simply did not have time to explore. But who says we can't come back again one day?

Farwell Flores, and thank you thou great and magnificent sunset maker. 

Keep the fire burning!