First, thanks to all of you for your emails and concern related to the recent earthquake. I was far away from Sumatra where the earthquake hit and since I was on a boat when it happened, I didn’t even know it had occurred until late last night when we got back to shore. Please keep the victims and those affected in your thoughts and prayers….
The beginning of the tour ‘Hunting Komodos by Camera’ that I joined Tuesday started off by driving across the island of Lombok. We boarded the boat after a few stops along the way at a pottery village and a ship building village. 17 people in total were on the tour, and I was the only one from the Americas! We all got along really well from the beginning. Our first stop was a very small island where we attempted to add to the coral regrowth program, snorkeled, played beach volleyball and had dinner by a bonfire on the beach. I got a bit torn up diving for the ball because there were bits of coral in the sand! In the past, the Indonesians used blasting as a means of fishing which destroyed and scattered a lot of coral all over the shore. They are making good strides towards redeveloping the reefs though, which is a great thing. Everyone was asked to sing a song by the bonfire, although only 3 of us actually did. I performed with I’m a Little Teapot for my new friends….not to sound too cocky, but I’m really good at that one. ;)
The first full day on the boat we did a hike to the top of a mountain overlooking a saltwater lake, formed by a tidal wave that filled a crater made by a volcano. It was a 30 minute hike, straight up. With sun screen and bug spray covering me from head to toe and the fact that I haven’t had a proper work out in over 2 ½ months, I swear I have never sweat so much in my life! Hence, I was very excited when I finally made it to the top! We stopped that evening at Kilo Beach, where the entire village came out to greet us. The kids were amazing and very eager to practice the little English that they knew. They absolutely loved having their picture taken. The next time I travel to a third world country, I will have a Polaroid camera with me so that I can give them a copy of the picture too! They had a volleyball net and the locals invited us to play against some local girls. I haven’t played a sport in front of that large of a crowd in over a decade…there were easily over 200 people surrounding the court. Everyone was laughing and clapping, regardless of how bad we played…it was quite embarrassing for 3 guys, 2 other girls and I to be beaten by villagers whose average age was 16. Oh well!
The next morning, I was giddy with excitement as we docked at Komodo Island. As we approached, I acknowledged that the dragons are quite smart to have chosen that island to live….Komodo actually looks like a place where dragons belonged…very barren savannah with few forests. In total, we saw 2 adult dragons and 1 baby dragon. I got yelled at no less than twice by our guide which you are required to have in the park for safety reasons. The first time I was yelled at was because I was swinging my water bottle as we were approaching the first dragon. I was excited! The guide immediately scolded me because movement like that indicates to the dragon that I might want to feed it. I did not want to feed it, so I stopped moving my bottle! The second time, I walked behind one, alone, and stopped to take a picture of the dragon from a different angle…I was promptly yelled at to keep moving.
From then on, the guide didn’t leave my side. I was happy for that when he spotted a king cobra AND a green mamba, both deadly poisonous snakes, in the same nearby tree and promptly warned me not to get any closer! The green mamba was just hanging out and the king cobra was slithering through the tree after two mice that we could see trying to hide in the leaves. We all gathered round to watch…I was closest to the green mamba because he didn’t seem interested in moving. Then, all of a sudden, the mamba dropped down to a lower branch just like that. I screamed and jumped back easily 6 feet knocking down a German guy and an English girl along my way. I didn’t know who I had knocked over on my flight backwards because I didn’t look and I didn’t apologize (until later!) because I was traumatized and wouldn’t take my eyes off the snake!! Needless to say, it took quite a while for my blood pressure to return to normal!
After Komodo Island, we cruised to Red Beach where we did some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. The reefs were amazing…tons of fish, a lot of which I had never seen before. We spotted a large sepia (in the octopus/squid family), about 2’ by 1’, making its way along the reef. I also stumbled upon a 1 ½’ crocodile fish chilling out near the rocks. It is apparently extremely rare to see that, so I was excited to have spotted something so unique.
The next day, we went to Rinca Island, the second largest of the four islands where you can find Komodos. You’ll be happy to know that I was very well-behaved perhaps due to the slight hangover I had from drinking arak the night before (arak is a local liquor made from palm trees…40-70% proof but it goes great with OJ and Sprite!). The place was crawling with dragons! We spotted 19 dragons in the first half hour…they like to hang around the rangers station cafeteria. They can smell blood up to 2 km away and so always linger where the humans prepare food.
On our 5 km hike through Rinca Island, we saw a water buffalo that had recently been bitten by a dragon. The dragon’s saliva contains at least one bacterium of 60 that is highly septic. For large animals like the buffalo, it can take up to 3 weeks for the animal to die. Then, the dragons devour its cadaver. This buffalo had already been bitten but still wasn’t dead, and a dragon was close by waiting for its final breath. It was a chilling scene to witness. In all, I saw 25 dragons, just slightly over 1% of the dragon population on Komodo (approx. 1,300 dragons) and Rinca (approx. 1,000 dragons). The largest was over 6’ and the smallest just under 3’. It was an awesome experience to see the largest living lizard and closest relative of the dinosaur alive!
As the sun was setting Friday night, we sailed with a massive school of dolphins, easily 30-40 of them… the most I have ever seen at one time. They were in the mood to perform and put on quite a show for us: they swan under and around the boat, jumped, twisted in the air and followed us for at least 5 solid minutes. With a perfect sunset and dolphins swimming all around, it was definitely one of those moments where you’re left feeling that all is right in the world and you can’t stop smiling.
The beginning of the tour ‘Hunting Komodos by Camera’ that I joined Tuesday started off by driving across the island of Lombok. We boarded the boat after a few stops along the way at a pottery village and a ship building village. 17 people in total were on the tour, and I was the only one from the Americas! We all got along really well from the beginning. Our first stop was a very small island where we attempted to add to the coral regrowth program, snorkeled, played beach volleyball and had dinner by a bonfire on the beach. I got a bit torn up diving for the ball because there were bits of coral in the sand! In the past, the Indonesians used blasting as a means of fishing which destroyed and scattered a lot of coral all over the shore. They are making good strides towards redeveloping the reefs though, which is a great thing. Everyone was asked to sing a song by the bonfire, although only 3 of us actually did. I performed with I’m a Little Teapot for my new friends….not to sound too cocky, but I’m really good at that one. ;)
The first full day on the boat we did a hike to the top of a mountain overlooking a saltwater lake, formed by a tidal wave that filled a crater made by a volcano. It was a 30 minute hike, straight up. With sun screen and bug spray covering me from head to toe and the fact that I haven’t had a proper work out in over 2 ½ months, I swear I have never sweat so much in my life! Hence, I was very excited when I finally made it to the top! We stopped that evening at Kilo Beach, where the entire village came out to greet us. The kids were amazing and very eager to practice the little English that they knew. They absolutely loved having their picture taken. The next time I travel to a third world country, I will have a Polaroid camera with me so that I can give them a copy of the picture too! They had a volleyball net and the locals invited us to play against some local girls. I haven’t played a sport in front of that large of a crowd in over a decade…there were easily over 200 people surrounding the court. Everyone was laughing and clapping, regardless of how bad we played…it was quite embarrassing for 3 guys, 2 other girls and I to be beaten by villagers whose average age was 16. Oh well!
The next morning, I was giddy with excitement as we docked at Komodo Island. As we approached, I acknowledged that the dragons are quite smart to have chosen that island to live….Komodo actually looks like a place where dragons belonged…very barren savannah with few forests. In total, we saw 2 adult dragons and 1 baby dragon. I got yelled at no less than twice by our guide which you are required to have in the park for safety reasons. The first time I was yelled at was because I was swinging my water bottle as we were approaching the first dragon. I was excited! The guide immediately scolded me because movement like that indicates to the dragon that I might want to feed it. I did not want to feed it, so I stopped moving my bottle! The second time, I walked behind one, alone, and stopped to take a picture of the dragon from a different angle…I was promptly yelled at to keep moving.
From then on, the guide didn’t leave my side. I was happy for that when he spotted a king cobra AND a green mamba, both deadly poisonous snakes, in the same nearby tree and promptly warned me not to get any closer! The green mamba was just hanging out and the king cobra was slithering through the tree after two mice that we could see trying to hide in the leaves. We all gathered round to watch…I was closest to the green mamba because he didn’t seem interested in moving. Then, all of a sudden, the mamba dropped down to a lower branch just like that. I screamed and jumped back easily 6 feet knocking down a German guy and an English girl along my way. I didn’t know who I had knocked over on my flight backwards because I didn’t look and I didn’t apologize (until later!) because I was traumatized and wouldn’t take my eyes off the snake!! Needless to say, it took quite a while for my blood pressure to return to normal!
After Komodo Island, we cruised to Red Beach where we did some of the best snorkeling I’ve ever done. The reefs were amazing…tons of fish, a lot of which I had never seen before. We spotted a large sepia (in the octopus/squid family), about 2’ by 1’, making its way along the reef. I also stumbled upon a 1 ½’ crocodile fish chilling out near the rocks. It is apparently extremely rare to see that, so I was excited to have spotted something so unique.
The next day, we went to Rinca Island, the second largest of the four islands where you can find Komodos. You’ll be happy to know that I was very well-behaved perhaps due to the slight hangover I had from drinking arak the night before (arak is a local liquor made from palm trees…40-70% proof but it goes great with OJ and Sprite!). The place was crawling with dragons! We spotted 19 dragons in the first half hour…they like to hang around the rangers station cafeteria. They can smell blood up to 2 km away and so always linger where the humans prepare food.
On our 5 km hike through Rinca Island, we saw a water buffalo that had recently been bitten by a dragon. The dragon’s saliva contains at least one bacterium of 60 that is highly septic. For large animals like the buffalo, it can take up to 3 weeks for the animal to die. Then, the dragons devour its cadaver. This buffalo had already been bitten but still wasn’t dead, and a dragon was close by waiting for its final breath. It was a chilling scene to witness. In all, I saw 25 dragons, just slightly over 1% of the dragon population on Komodo (approx. 1,300 dragons) and Rinca (approx. 1,000 dragons). The largest was over 6’ and the smallest just under 3’. It was an awesome experience to see the largest living lizard and closest relative of the dinosaur alive!
As the sun was setting Friday night, we sailed with a massive school of dolphins, easily 30-40 of them… the most I have ever seen at one time. They were in the mood to perform and put on quite a show for us: they swan under and around the boat, jumped, twisted in the air and followed us for at least 5 solid minutes. With a perfect sunset and dolphins swimming all around, it was definitely one of those moments where you’re left feeling that all is right in the world and you can’t stop smiling.
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