Komodo dragons

Before the fiasco with our excursion to the Gilli islands, we had shunned the ship’s excursions to book our own on the Internet. We wanted to see the Komodo dragons but also wanted to experience one of the world’s seven pink beaches which there is one near Komodo National park. Unfortunately, the ship only offered one or the other but not both excursions at the same time.
Meeting up with a few couples from our ship who had the same idea, we met up on the beach after tendering in to meet our excursion organizer Henrik from gotokomodo.com.

Henrik and his team which included an obligatory park ranger explained to all of us that we would first visit Pink Beach in order to take advantage of the nice sunny weather and beat the rest of the ship’s excursion passenger so that we could have a much quieter snorkel and beach time which was the correct call as we saw throngs of tourist heading for the beach later on.

We had a peculiar time boarding the boat. Since the pier is very tall without proper steps to walk down to, the only way to hop on was to make a small assisted jump on the boat’s top deck. You could either then take the ladder down to the main deck or opt to sit under a small wooden awning on top.

Henrik’s crew were very solicitous and provided mattresses to sit or lay on and offered us coffee and tea. It felt a bit like being on the African Queen as the diesel engine rumbled along for about 20 minutes across to Pink Beach.

From afar, we could see some boats parked offshore and a few people on the beach. From that distance you cannot see any pink hues, however once onshore, the red flecks from the broken corals tainted the sand to a reddish colour making it unique.

We parked alongside other boats offshore and some of us decided to get in the water and snorkel. Keeping my water shoes on instead of borrowing fins was a mistake as I battled the current and tried to make headway towards shore. I quickly gave up exhausted and returned to the boat to get on a smaller boat that would take me to shore. Chris continued his snorkelling and took amazing underwater photographs of fish and even a ray!

The water at Pink Beach is gin clear, the sand nice and soft unlike some other beaches where hard broken coral made it hard on shoeless feet.

A few polite vendors offer bracelets for sale but do not pester you constantly as some other places do.

A little school of fish swimming near the top of water at the shoreline turned out to be little harmless Bali sharks only about 4-6 inches long.

Some of us who didn’t want to snorkel back to the boat crammed into the little canoe type motorized boat. We carefully and laughingly balanced our touristy weight to prevent a tip over although I’m sure the long length of the boat wouldn’t have allowed that.

Back on our African Queen, Henrik and his young team had a nice home made lunch prepared. He kept apologizing for the simple fare saying it wouldn’t compare with our ship’s meals but there is nothing better than homemade cooking especially from another culture. Delicious fried tofu in a nice red sauce (which I thought was chicken strips), coconut fried chicken, rice, salads, fresh watermelon. We dug in like it was our last meal and I’m sure the mmm’s and ohmm ‘s convinced him more than our verbal reassurance that everything was yummy.

We headed back to the Komodo National park to begin our trek to see the dragons. The literature we read before coming to the island was to not wear anything red and if anyone had any bleeding for cuts or some women menstruating to not visit as the dragons can smell blood for 5 miles away! It wasn’t long in our trek that we came to a clearing where 4 dragons were corralled obviously to guarantee that you would see dragons. Two males and a female lounged about ignoring the paparazzi tourists.

A small juvenile walked away from the group. The ranger explained that Komodos are cannibals and they will eat their young and attack each other for meat if the food supply is low. We saw many deer and wild boars during our trek which probably ensures that they are well fed.

It wasn’t that long ago that the practice of feeding the Komodo was stopped in lieu of letting them hunt for themselves thus reducing bad encounters with humans. Though it was only a few weeks prior that a tourist (insert “idiot” here) got attacked and bit by a Komodo after getting too close and shunning a park ranger. Because of the bacteria present in the Komodo’s saliva, one must be evacuated immediately for medical attention or die rather a painful and excruciating death from the infection.

Here below is a dragon’s nest which they take over from a bird’s nest.

Walking along the trails we came across a huge spider splayed in its web. The park ranger kindly took everyone’s phone or camera to take closeups. Though apparently not poisonous, the sting would be very painful.

A hike up the viewpoint afforded everyone a panoramic view of the island and a chance for a photo shoot.

At the end of our hike near the beach, we were surprised by a dragon coming right at us at a good pace. Everyone gave him a wide berth and as though he recognized a photo op or was tired from his brisk pace, he just laid down in front of us waiting for the selfies to start. Boy did we take many!

Though they are really magnificent and unique creatures they deserve the respect of a wild animal. As our guide walked a few feet away from the dragon to make his way behind him, I saw the dragon slowly turn his head tracking the guide almost assessing his chances of getting him. There is a certain calculating malevolence in its eyes which reminded me of the Game of Thrones dragons.