Komodo National Park – HurricaneMaine

Snorkeling and beaches…A pink beach!

East Nusa Tenggara, the pink beach, gets is pink color from the brilliant red coral that degrades when the coral itself dies and the skeleton of calcium carbonate breaks apart. From a distance it is hard to see the pink but at the waters edge of is pretty spectacular.

We went snorkeling and I took some pretty cool videos here: https://youtu.be/JFaOk4JRY0c and https://youtu.be/SLR-uApupVo. I even found nemo: https://youtu.be/VWqyp_vs4X0

Turtle bay, Sivi island

Next we went to snorkel to look for turtles. Here is where I made my biggest mistakes. It was pretty deep water and I’m not a very strong swimmer. With the current, I could not really pay attention to the camera I had and as a result I did not get the actual footage of the large turtle in front of me which was spectacular. Next time a life vest would give me more peace of mind to attend to the camera. I did get some pictures but the turtle was actually much closer to me after I took them. Though heartbroken I can’t share what I saw when it was literally right in front of me, maybe it was just meant for me to enjoy.

Snorkeling in Menjerite bay

This was deep water and yes I wore a life vest. I did get some decent video here. https://youtu.be/6bKrOFrPKN0, https://youtu.be/iezli6sP_dI, https://youtu.be/wbhHtQf-zm8, and https://youtu.be/7rPmB0cCjvc.

Kelor Island, snorkeling and trekking

We took a speed boat in to the island. The top of the island is a great panorama viewpoint. The snorkeling was okay but there were incredible large schools of fish. The fish that close to shore are very aggressive and would nip at your legs. It did not hurt but was surprising and over and over became very annoying.

Snorkeling videos: https://youtu.be/Ki2pv_OkgKw and https://youtu.be/jT4AQuCIsAo.

The plan is to climb to the top and take pictures.

Our guide and owner of Filan Travel. He worked so hard to make a great trip by adjusting what was our most important things we wanted to see.

During low tide is a good time to work on the boat.

Afterwards we went back to the boat to clean up and have lunch. We had a little time to walk around Labuan Bajo.

We had a flight to Jakarta in mid afternoon. If I were to do it again I would stay another day. A proper shower with warm water would have been appreciated. But we had a lot to plan around and chose the flight back to China earlier based upon the current 8 day quarantine which ended up being changed to no quarantine. We also should not have booked our flight out so early but we were not sure what was going to happen and all indication at the time showed not a loosening of restrictions.

Komodo dragons

Komodo national park is composed of a few islands. The largest is komodo island and the second largest is Pusua Rinca. We visited both over the live aboard boat tour.

I have wanted to see Komodo dragons for a long time. This boat tour is one of the better ways to pack in a lot of things in one trip. Plus there is only two of us. Things are more customized that way. As the weather had been bad, no one could get to the Islands for about a week. We lucked out that it was open the day we started. But with impending rain we decided to do it the first day instead of the second, just in case.

Komodo dragons

Led by two rangers we toured a very small part of the island and learned about the dragons.

Males are larger than females and can be as long as 10 feet and about 330 pounds.
They can liver up to 30 years
They are endangered and this is the only place you can see them in nature in the world.
They have lived in these Lesser Sunda Islands for millions of years.
They lay 30 eggs in deep diagonal holes in mounds used by a kiwi bird for the same purpose. Many animals will try to eat the eggs so the female guards the nest for the first three months until the rainy season comes. Then the holes are undiscoverable.
They mate once a year. If males not present, females have both chromosomes so can actually create eggs by parthenogenesis. Unfortunately, in this manner there are only males hatched.
Juveniles run to the trees after hatching as they can be eaten by just about everything including other dragons. They live in small lizards, insects, etc and only come down once in awhile. Add use the law of nature only about 10% make it to adulthood.
The dragons have venom glands with toxins that stop clotting and lower blood pressure. There is also 500 species of bacteria that provide fast infection. Their serrated teeth leave large wounds. They can even take down a water buffalo. Many will feed on one animal and may fight for the food.
They can eat 80% of their weight but only eat every month or so.

Komodo Island

Timor deer and wild boar are some of the prey here. There are some amazing species here at it is a protected park.

The dragons were amazing. I was able to get within a few meters of them. They are incredible. If they want to move they can do it very quickly.

This is an optical illusion. I’m not that close.

Rinca Island

This has an actual information center and elevated paths but it is not a zoo. They don’t keep the dragons in the area as they come and go as they please.

We noticed a juvenile moving quickly away. He was sensing the air with his tongue that all the other dragons were moving into the area. Smart guy to get away. You can see him here: https://youtu.be/tud0SWFHbjk

As we walked along we noticed a deer laying under the walkway. There was one komodo dragon about 20 meters away. After visiting the information center, we saw that more dragons came near the other one. We are pretty sure the deer had been bitten and the scent drew in the other dragons. They can smell blood 4 km away. Now they just wait for the deer to be near death.

Both islands have a few villages on them. Life is pretty tough for the residents who are mostly fishermen. Their houses are mostly on stilts due to tides but also as komodo dragons roam the islands freely. Of course they can climb stairs so keeping doors closed is important. I’m sure they house there goats, chickens, and cats that we saw.

The villagers also make the komodo dragon carvings that you can buy. They have statues and also small ones that are magnets.

We also did a fair amount of snorkeling…..

Labuan Bajo

From Denpasar, the flight to Labuan Bajo is a little over an hour. It is further east from Bali on a large island called East Nusa Tenggara. From here I will stay one night at the Sylvia Resort komodo and will be picked up by the tour operator to travel to the boat in the morning.

There is not much around except for resorts scattered at the end of winding mountain roads. Sometimes it is better just to relax and enjoy the quiet which was made easier with its own beach and pools.

The next morning, after breakfast (and feeding the pussy gato friends I made by giving fish to just one of them the night before), we were picked up for our live aboard tour.

Call this light glamping. A bed, places to hang out…. We paid for a boat with air conditioning. You are on a boat so the bathroom is minimal with a toilet you use scoops of water to flush and a shower with little pressure. It is a typical Asian bathroom you might see in a smaller hotel (usually they have more water pressure for good reason).

They fed us so much food. All typically the same: rice, noodles, fried eggplant, vegetables, tempeh/tofu, fried fish, eggs and pancake for breakfast, fried bananas for a snack, and always fresh fruit.

Not much of an inconvenience as it is only two nights and the only way to see some really incredible things! The scenery through the area was amazing and we made several stops along the way which are in the next posts. Walking up on the water, having a whole crew just wanting you to be safe and happy was all part of the experience.

This is the ring of fire where the islands have been created by volcanoes. Many small villages exist for fishing but not every island is inhabited. Komodo national park has three large islands. Some villages are on them but no tourists can stay.

Sunrise saw the flying foxes which are actually megabats that feed on fruit coming back to where they nest for the day.

Sunset was amazing as well and you could see the flying foxes leaving their nests to feed on the fruit. These are the largest bats in the world and incredible to watch thousands fly over head.

Here is a video to watch: https://youtu.be/OceIxFyU4NU

We stayed in Flores and sailed to komodo island and back stopping at points along the way.