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| Our Journey so far...and the farthest East and South we'll be. |
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Approaching Komodo Island...home of DRAGONS!!!
Dun dun duuuuunnnnn!!!!! |
We met our tour group about 7:45, and caught the first
tender off of the ship to Komodo Island, the home of Komodo Dragons. After a brief safety talk, among other things
warning us to make sure the “men with sticks” were always between us and the
dragons, we headed into the jungle to find the elusive monsters!!! On the way in, our guide stopped to point out
a fruit that is common there. I have no
idea what he was saying, I think he called it a jungle apple. That may be wholly inaccurate, but you weren’t
there, so you can’t call me out on it!
After telling us about the “apples”, he told us about an elderly woman
that, about 3 years ago, went to pick them, and was attacked and eaten by a
group of the dragons. Then he told us
about a child that was eaten by them 8 years ago. We were not sure if this was to scare us or
get our attention, or if he really didn’t consider that TMI! Anyway, we continued and he pointed out a
pile of “scat” from a dragon. It was
white, which he told us meant it was full of calcium and was mostly bone. (Yay?)
As we journeyed through the jungle, something rustled through the leaves
scurrying away, and a few of us caught a glimpse of a very small one, maybe 4
feet long.
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| View from the top. |
We continued up a long and moderately aggressive hill, where
at the top was a nice overlook. We
looked over. And by then we were
dripping with sweat from the climb, the heat, and the relentless sun! So, we were happy to head back down. But, after Theresa’s knee injury two weeks
before we left, and her right leg sore from all the climbing at Borobudur, this
hill was NOT fun.
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| The Nest...about 15-20 feet in diameter, 4-5 feet high. |
At the bottom of the hill, and back into the jungle, we came
to a nest. The female dragon pushes a huge
mound of dirt into a pile, and then digs several holes within it. She will only bury the future eggs in one of
the holes, but she wants to make it a bit harder for scavengers to find the
eggs, since Komodo Dragons are cannibalistic. (Aren't they swell?)
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| Looking in the nest with multiple holes. |
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| Cockatoos. |
Later on the path, someone noticed a couple of cockatoos in
a tree. We squinted and peered and
pointed and looked, and finally spotted two white birds against a nearly white
sky. A few of us, at least. Some people never found them.
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| We felt very safe given the "men with sticks"!! |
A little further down the path, and we came upon a group of
six dragons, hanging out by the watering hole.
As it turns out, they like that hole and wait for prey to get thirsty
enough to take a risk. (We brought out
own water, by the way!) They have about 60 different types of bacteria in their saliva, so their bite is meant to infect the prey, then the infection kills them. The dragon follows the prey around until it drops dead. (Aren't they swell??)
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| Trusting that Theresa will scream if they start running! |
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| I'll watch this way and you watch that way! |
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| Fulllll...So Fulllll...from the last ship! |
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| Shhhh!!! Don't tell Theresa they are behind her! |
We took assorted pictures, and a few poses (keeping a safe
distance). During our time observing,
one of the males seemed to come too close to another male and the huffing and
growling started! Eventually we left the
watering hole, and walked a mere 5-10 minutes back to the dock. Why the heck didn’t we come in that way????
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| A brief altercation! (we hope you can see the movie clip) |
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Lunch anyone?? (The dragons eat the Timor Deer.)
(Timor means "East" in Indonesian. So I really don't get "East Timor".) |
By then, Theresa just did not feel like going on to the “Pink
Beach” and spending 5 hours baking in the sun. I agreed, so we came back to
the ship. Instead of the "Pink Beach" we went to the "Bronze and Grey" beach...poolside on the ship! We took a dip in the pool, sat
in the shade a while, changed our clothes, and then had a nice lunch on the ship!
Tonight, we had dinner with the Priest on board, and caught the end of the show. To Bali tomorrow. Goodnight!!
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