Booked a private two day island hopper. Been lookin' forward to this one. First heard of the infamous Komodo Dragons when I was but a wee lad of eight. Twenty four odd years later and here I am. Just me and two crew members on this mission. Can't tell which one is the captain, they're trading off pilot duties. The elder gentleman speaks a modicum of English. Limited Englonesian will have to suffice.
Set out from Labuan Bajo harbor at 9am. Chugged straight to Pulau Rinca (Poo-Lao Reencha), must've been two and a half hours at least. Many small islands drift by lazily. One looks exactly like a golf course.
Rinca is all dry hills descending into unnegotiable (that's not a real word but I bet you can guess what it means) mangroves at the shore. On land I'm scooped up by a ranger who leads me further in. It's hot and dry with stunted foliage serving as forest. My guide explains that dragons are most active in the morning when it's cooler. At this hour their cold blood forbids high activity. Bacteria in their mouths infect the wounds of all they bite including larger prey that cannot be slaughtered outright. Though the process may take a fortnight the dragon always gets his man, or buffalo, or deer, or pig, etc. The dragon can fast for up to a month before devouring 80% of his bodyweight in one sitting, the menu including any of the afore mentioned as well as other dragons and even their own eggs (mothers necessarily must be particularly protective against hungry fathers.) Cannibalistic apex predators, they can live for up to fifty years in the wild. Kinda like a lazy asshole human with scales.
We take a short jaunt on dry mud trails through the feeble brush and scrubby savanna. Loads of steaming buffalo feces grace our passage. Only one dragon is spotted, a female chillin' hard in the shade of a large rock.
I was expecting a scorched earth with swarms of fire breathing, leathery-winged, wyrms. Wrong island I suppose.
Back on board and the chugging engine puts me to sleep. I'm awakened to mounds of food. Fried eggplant and spicy tomatoes in delectable sauce complete a meal of rice and fish.
Snorkeling later proved disappointing. I don't know why we ended up in that area, something about a red pebble beach but it looked largely the same as any other from my vantage. The water was cloudy with detritus and filled with floating plastic junk. My skin felt slimy after swimming, as if slathered in a thin film of filth. The coral wasn't nearly as enchanting as that of Tujuh Belas Pulau but at least there were more fish. Loads of them. Schools of big ones too, as well as thousands of glistening lil' guys. They swarmed in clouds, performing their perplexing synchronized swim-dance, a spectacle surely employed only to confuse me.
Afterward, as we plundered on, various locals made an appearance. Dorsal fins of dolphins crested waves in the distance. Flying fish breached the surface for short though rather controlled flights. Amazing how their fins allow for banking trajectory with the application of appropriate tilt. A barracuda skipped its way across the water in a weird sort of vertical orientated tap dance. Above, arrow straight birds dive bomb the depths in search of piscine prey.
We park for dinner in a wide bay in sight of the morrow's destination. Sunset over western peaks proves an awe inspiring show. My eyes remain fixed on the horizon aglow with embers of falling day. I'm told there are to be bats.
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