Indonesia 2013: Komodo Dragons
Labuan Bajo to Bali, Indonesia
Day 129 – 130 – 8 – 9 Sept, 2013 – Labuan Bajo to Rinca Island and the dragons
We set out for Rinca Island and our much-anticipated dragon encounter. We anchored mid-afternoon and walked to the ranger station with a guide (you most definitely need to have a guide – one carrying a big dragon stick) to see about booking a dragon trek the following morning. We were told that they are active in the morning and then find a place to snooze in the shade when it gets hot later in the day (the dragons, not the rangers! 🙂 ). Still, I couldn’t wait another day before seeing a dragon, so the guide took us to see what I now call the “kitchen dragons”. These are the ones that smell the food in the kitchen building for the rangers and hang out below the building in the shade. The rangers say they don’t feed them, so you think that eventually they would get the hint and give up on the kitchen, but there they were in all their glory. The following day at 7am we made our way to the ranger station and started our long trek (only 5km). On the way to the ranger station we saw our first dragon, and then many more followed. We saw one walking through the compound, flicking his tongue along the way. They have good sense of smell through their noses, but even better sense of smell using their tongues. Their noses are particularly sensitive, so the sticks the rangers carry are forked at the end. If a dragon starts getting too close, they poke it in the nose and apparently that diverts them. We walked by the dragon nest where one female was sitting. Dragons mate in July and August then lay eggs in September. It takes 8 – 9 months for a baby dragon to hatch out of its egg, and then the hatchlings go immediately up into the trees. The reason is that the adult dragons, and even the parents themselves, will eat the baby dragons… how’s that for poor parenting skills?
We continued along the way and saw other dragons walking around. Then we headed back to the riverbed and saw one of the wild water buffalo of the island in a pool. Later on in the trek we saw another one, likely injured, sitting in a mud pool. We watched as a dragon slid over to the area and perched on the side of the mud hole above the buffalo… waiting for his opportunity. Dragon bites are filled with 65 types of bacteria and so the large animals, once bitten, will become infected and/or bleed to death. Then it’s feast time for the dragons. Glad we didn’t actually see the dragon any more active in his pursuit of the water buffalo. The rest of the hike was uneventful, but wonderfully enjoyable if a tad hot.
Back on board the boat, we decided not to spend another night in the small anchorage with all the other dragon-fanciers and headed out towards the west coast of Rinca and Komodo Island.
Day 131 – 132 – 10 – 11 Sept, 2013 – Komodo Island and more dragons
Although we thought we’d spend the night on the west side of Rinca Island, we decided to head straight for Komodo and another day of dragon viewing. The currents were unbelievable and at one point, although we were motoring hard, we were only doing less than half a knot. It took two hours longer than expected to make it around and into the bay we anchored in. We were tucked behind a small island which gave us some protection from the currents, but it was still pretty strong. Across from where we were anchored was the “pink beach” with sand that truly is pink. This is thanks to a combination of red and white corals that are offshore in this particular location. We headed out the next day to the Komodo ranger station, though because of the strong currents we didn’t want to leave the boat when the water was moving so strongly. This meant that we didn’t get to the dragons until 11-ish and they were already hiding and snoozing. Luckily, Komodo also had a good number of “kitchen dragons” so we got to enjoy a few here. The dragons on Komodo are larger than their Rinca cousins because the island has more food for them… deer, water buffalo, and wild hogs.
Once back at the boat, we had lunch and then took Joy (our dinghy) over to pink beach to snorkel in the beautiful waters and see the coral and the fish. It was a great snorkel spot and we cooled off after sizzling on the hike in the morning. We feasted on a huge lobster for dinner that we bought from a local fishing canoe. They wanted 500,000 Rupia (about $48 USD), but we bargained with them and ended up at $18 plus two t-shirts. The lobster was EXCELLENT… totally worth the price!
Day 133 – 134 – 11 – 12 Sept, 2013 – Komodo Island to Banta Island and then Sumbawa, Sangar Bay
We thought we had calculated the tides and the currents correctly, based on the info we had and our experiences over the past two days, but somehow, we were sadly mistaken. We headed out at 8am (low tide should have been at 8:30am) and thought we’d get around the island and catch the changing tide to ride up and around Komodo. That so did not happen. In fact, the current was so strong that at one point we were traveling a half a knot in the opposite direction to where we were pointing and wanting to go. Yikes! We slogged through the strong current for a few hours until it eased and we started making some forward headway. There was a set of three rocks off one point that we somehow couldn’t get past either coming to or going near Komodo. Finally, we were out of their grip and we put them behind us. We traveled across the top of Komodo and went to the island of Banta, where we tucked behind the northwestern hook in a beautiful location filled with coral and clear water. We snorkeled a bit and checked on the anchor. Unfortunately, the tides, winds, and currents, all changed during the night and the anchor alarm went off. We thought the anchor had reset itself, but eventually the anchor alarm went off again and Roger saw the depths increase from 20 to 40 to 50+ feet, so we knew the anchor was just dangling off the bow of the boat and we were headed out to sea. As it seemed we were already on our way, we decided to continue and get an exceptionally early start at 3am for points west.
Day 135 – 13 Sept, 2013 – Sumbawa, Sangar Bay to Medang Island
We had a nice trip over the top of Sumbawa and to a small island on the way to Lombok. We anchored and were immediately hailed by one of the two other boats anchored there. It was an invitation to a pot luck on their boat and despite being tired, we decided to join for a while. We had a lovely time and spent longer than anticipated. When we returned to our boat, we found it had dragged quite a distance. That and the very rolly motion that kept Roger awake, decided us on leaving at 2am to head for Lombok. So Medang was more of a rest stop… Dinner and a nap, before continuing on.
Day 136 – 140 – 14 – 17 Sept, 2013 – Medang to Lomok and anchored at Medana Marina
When we started at 2am and cleared the island, we were in some rough seas and high winds. We were able to sail for a while and then the wind died. We were beating into the current with the wind on our nose yet again. At least it wasn’t as bad as in the Komodo National Park… We only slowed to about 4 knots and we were still heading in the right direction. Still, we needed to motor quite a bit of the way. We arrived at the Medana Marina on the northwest side of Lombok and anchored. It is a lovely little spot and we made ourselves at home, booked a city tour, brought laundry in to be done (very inexpensive and much easier than trying to hand wash and line dry sheets, towels and everything else that gets dirty and salty under way. The city tour was fun… A long day with many stops including temples, ATM, monkeys, supermarket at the mall (provisioning at a “real” supermarket is a highlight for sure!), beach resort, hand-made pottery shop, traditional weaving village, and pearl shop. We were taken by bus all over and it was a little like a grade-school field trip including box lunch sammies and soda.
The evening before we left to head to Bali, there was a buffet dinner and blues band. This local group from Lombok did a wonderful job with blues and then all the classic rock and roll tunes. The lead singer did a great Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) imitation. We danced every dance and had a great time. The band played until about 11pm and then we headed back to the boat, showered and danced some more, then slept for 4 hours before getting up at 3:30am to catch the tide to Bali.
Day 141 – 155 – 18 Sept – 1 Oct, 2013 – Bali!
We had a good crossing from Lombok to Bali and arrived at 4:30pm. We got situated and went ashore with our friends Ruthie and Neal and had a lovely and very upscale dinner on the beach at a resort called “Spice”. They had tables with linen set up on their beach, right by the waterfront and we watched the sun set and had a full moon to dine by. The next morning, we brought our passports and photos in to have our visas for Indonesia extended one month. We got some information on touring the area and then did a little shopping in one of the local Lovina beach stalls, where you can get local batik and handwoven fabrics made up into Balinese clothing for $8 – $10. Roger got meditation pants and I got some wonderful sun-dresses as well as some meditation pants. That evening we enjoyed the welcome ceremony and dancing in Lovina on the beach. “Lovina with Love” was the theme (along with the dolphins, which are plentiful here).
We got a recommendation for a place to get a Balinese massage and scheduled for that same afternoon… Only $5.50 for an hour massage. I also did the hair creme bath, that helped my hair which has gotten dry with all the salt water/air soaking and wind. The massages were good, not the best we’ve had, but how can you complain at that price. In any event, they were very relaxing and I really enjoyed it. Later that evening, we joined some folks on other yachts at a Thai restaurant for dinner, which was excellent! After traveling in the more remote areas of Indonesia, even this small resort community on the north shore of Bali seems upscale and affluent. Most of the tourists head for South Bali and the beaches, parties and shopping, but this is more relaxed.
On Friday, we did a tour to the beautiful waterfalls. We walked in and climbed down (then up) 300 steps, but it was totally worth it. We swam in the pools under the falls, which was lovely and refreshing. Afterwards we visited a Buddhist monastery where they also hold Vipassana meditation courses.
We are enchanted with Bali… the architecture, the landscape, the many temples, the warm smiling people, contributing to a wonderful energy. We think we might want to stay here for quite some time. Maybe even spend summers in New Zealand and winters in Bali?
On Sunday we hired a car and driver to take us to the town of Ubud, which started as an artist community and has grown to be the cultural center (and a tourist center) of Bali.
(see post for “Beautiful Bali 2013” in “Destinations”)
Back in Lovina Beach, Roger helped Neal fix a problem on his boat and we planned what to do with our final days in Bali. We had Pablo, our driver, take us for provisioning to the Carrfour supermarket and our expectations of what we would find there (think French supermarket) were dashed. It wasn’t even as good a supermarket as we went to in Lombok. Still, there were a few good finds like some awesome zucchini and wonderful apples… Staples while under way. We also had Pablo take us to some nearby holy hot springs, early in the morning before the crowds arrived and before it was so hot that the thought of soaking in warm water lost its appeal. After our morning soak, we headed up to some waterfalls which were absolutely lovely and very refreshing. It felt icy cold when we first got in because we were so hot, but then it felt just lovely and the swimming hole we found was perfect. We had lunch at a fantastic resort called “Shanti” with a beautiful view over to the mountains and the waterfalls we just visited. On the way back, we stopped at the other supermarket in the big town of Sinjaraja, called Hardys and were even more disappointed with that one (if that’s possible). That evening, a big group of cruisers met for dinner at a little restaurant in Lovina to celebrate Neal’s birthday. Ruthie and I wore our new little “croppers” (as Jackie on another yacht called them) and matching tops… We looked like splendid bookends! 🙂
Tuesday, the day before we left, Ruthie and I had Pablo take us to Ubud and back to pick up our tops and dresses from Bamboo Batik. Good that we got there early, because both needed just a few minor alterations to make a perfect fit. They were beautiful though and the only disappointment was that they hadn’t sewn the “Bamboo” label into these custom garments… Not sure why, as they are amazingly beautiful and excellent quality tailoring. Where the little sundresses are perfect for casual wear, this dress and the tops would be the thing to wear for more important occasions, and although a simple cotton shift, it would be great for anything from high tea to a summer wedding. Corrie and Kyle met us in Ubud for the trip back, having been in the south of Lombok and Bali surfing, and we returned to Lovina to celebrate Neal’s actual birthday with a pizza dinner on shore.
3:30AM on Wednesday the alarm went off and off we went leaving Bali behind us in our wake and heading north for Kalimantan… Orangutans or bust! Bali was an amazing place. I will definitely be going back there to explore more of the island and maybe even spend some extended time there… In the meantime, “sambay jumpah” (see you later) Bali!