3813 The only village on Komodo Island. It’s built on stilts because of the dragons.
3839 Diana with our head guide. He speaks excellent English.
3850 A typical section of the Komodo National Park trail. You really can’t tell but that tan surface is fine as talc dust.
3865 Two dragons moving, one smelling us with his tongue. The third on the extreme left near the tree and one other one a few yards on the other side of the tree were not curious.
Nov 1 – Sawali Bay, Komodo Island, Indonesia. Today we are visiting the home of the Kimodo Dragon, the aptly named Komodo Island. The island is a bit of a shock after visiting Java and Lombok, it’s extremely arid which seems odd because it’s so near many lush green islands. There’s no facility to dock our ship so we are tendering in again today.
This monitor lizard is the world’s largest lizard and the entire island, with 3 other smaller islands and parts of other islands make up the Komodo National Park. They grow to between 6-10 feet and weight up to 300 pounds. They are mainly carrion feeders but they will hunt and attack birds, invertebrates and mammals. Their newly hatched young climb trees to keep from being eaten by the parents. The parents will do whatever they have to in order to protect the eggs in their nest but once the eggs hatch, the young better scat quickly because they apparently make a very tasty snack.
They can run up to 12 miles per hour and can ambush deer and other animals. They rarely kill their prey outright but their mouth contains about 60 different types of bacteria so they usually bite the victim and wait for septicemia to kill it before eating. They don’t hear well but can smell a dead animal up to three miles away. Like most reptiles, they smell with their tongues.
While the ‘dragons’ are the most famous of the islands inhabitants many other animals live here including some spiders that are 6 inches across and many species of snakes, some poisonous. They told us that, although the dragons look fierce, more people are injured by snakes.
After landing on the beach we proceeded inland in small groups. Each group of about 12-14 was accompanied by two rangers and a guide. The rangers are locals and are armed with a long pole with a natural Y at one end. This is to defend us from the dragons if they decide to charge for some reason.
We set off into the scrub grass and trees. Most of the trees are small but some of the palms grow pretty tall. The trail was very dusty; it obviously hasn’t rained here in a long time. The wet season begins in January and lasts until March. It’s obviously been a long dry season. Our guide said that the whole walk would be about 2/3 of a mile (1 kilometer).
We came upon a cicada about 300 yards into the walk. They’re the oldest surviving plant form and grow wild here. They grow so slow that a 5 foot one is probably 100 years old.
They don’t guarantee that you’ll see dragons on the trek but they do their best to locate them. We found a group of four about one third of the way, in resting in the shade. They like to feed in the morning so they’re probably full about now and looking for a nap. I think one of them took notice of us because he (the males are larger and he was big) lifted himself off the ground and started moving our way. His tongue was darting in and out so he probably smelled us. With all the ladies cosmetics the odor was probably strange to him and he wanted to see what was up. I wasn’t that excited at that point, he was walking pretty slowly. As he passed another dragon that one got up. Now they have my attention. But after licking the air about a dozen times as he slowly moved forward, the first one to move stopped and lifted his head high off the ground. He must have satisfied his curiosity because he slowly turned away and went back in the shade to lie down. The other one also dropped to the ground. It made for some great pictures.
After the encounter with the dragons the rest of the walk was a hot, dry (at least it’s not humid), dusty event. We got back to the park headquarters where the locals had set up a little market. All I wanted was a carved wood Komodo dragon and I got a nice one for $10. I know I overpaid but it was worth it to me and made the local carver happy. He must have been a Muslim because he wished me God’s blessing and a meeting in Inshaallah (sp?) the Arabic word for heaven.
The rangers and our guide seemed very pleased to receive a small tip. This is our last Indonesian stop so I gave the lead ranger all the Indonesian rupiah I had left, about 50,000. Don’t get excited, that’s about $6. The others got slightly less but in US $ which they’ll have to exchange.
We got good seats on the tender for the ride to the ship. Very breezy by the doors. The forward seats can get a little hot and stuffy.
As we sailed out I saw some small dolphins (or porpoise, I can’t tell at distance) swimming along with the ship. On the way in I had seen some fish in a small area jumping out of the water. The dolphins must have been feeding.
Our entertainers tonight were a competitive ballroom dance team. The man, Kiki, has been on Dancing with the Stars for three seasons now and is supposed to come back for a fourth. His partner has been in the Las Vegas show ‘Dancing with the Stars’. It was their first time on a ship, they’re young and their show was outstanding. It’s nice to see young people perform. Many of our entertainers are semi-retired and do ships to travel cheaply and make a little money.
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