Day 313- Komodo Islands, Indonesia

RINCA AND KOMODO ISLANDS (10/11/09)

Rain as it was getting dark the night before had got us a little concerned about the weather we could expect the next day. However we awoke to a glorious sunrise over the island of Rinca with not a rain cloud in sight.

We got dressed hurriedly and were on the island before 6am. We had been on land less than five minutes when we spotted our first Komodo Dragon.

Several Dragons were hanging around the Rangers Station and, under close supervision, we were allowed to creep quite close.

The Komodo Dragon is the largest species of lizard in the world with males growing over 3 metres (10ft) long and weighing as much as 120kg (about 19 stones).

Whilst not sharing Adam's child-like excitement over these giant reptiles Liz, nevertheless, found them mesmerising to watch.

Apparently the Dragons often come here at this time of day, drawn by the smell of the Rangers cooking their breakfast. In this picture the sexual dimorphism of the species is particularly apparent with the small female at the front dwarfed by the enormous male.

We were a little nervous when getting this close, reportedly the Dragons can show a surprising turn of speed if they want to. However most that we encountered regarded us with an air of boredom, if that.

As well as their enormous size, powerful muscles and huge claws we had another very good reason to be nervous- the Komodo Dragon has extremely toxic saliva. As many as 60 virulent strains of bacteria live in it's mouth and it relies on these to kill it's prey. It will ambush a large animal, such as a Buffalo, and give it a nasty, but not lethal, bite. Then it patiently follows the poor animal around for as much as a week waiting for the fatally infected wound to weaken, and finally kill, it. This method of hunting means that Komodos can hunt animals much larger than themselves with minimal danger of injury to themselves.

A Komodo Dragon nest site. The mother will dig several empty holes as decoys to help prevent other Dragons, who are notorious cannibals, from digging up, and eating, the eggs or the young.

Whilst we were primarily here to see the Dragons we are always open to looking at any kind of interesting fauna. Here is a Dung Beetle laboriously rolling his ball of dung across the forest floor.

Obviously since the Komodo Dragons are wild animals they are not always to be found in the same place. The guide led us down this dry river bed as a likely place that we might spot some. As you can see Adam could hardly contain his excitement, he hadn't been this excited since he got stung by a scorpion.

The guide was certainly on the right track- in fact we had to change ours because this sleeping Dragon was right over the path.

We had come to the right place, there were Komodos everywhere. Like their smaller relatives Komodo Dragons are cold-blooded and so have to bask in the sun for several hours in the morning to warm up and become active.

As we stood on the bank of the dry river looking down at a rather revolting week old Buffalo carcass this curious Dragon came to investigate, tasting our scent with it's tongue.

The guide carries a large, forked , wooden stick with him to fend off any overly curious Komodo Dragons. He was doing just this with the Dragon in the last picture when we suddenly noticed this one creep out of the bushes behind us and start approaching. At another angle was another Komodo, leaving us surrounded. We quickly changed our position but got the unnerving feeling that the original Dragon had been providing a diversion for the man with the stick whilst the other two hunted us!

As we walked back we spotted this huge Water Buffalo right next to the path. They are the primary food for the Komodo Dragons on Rinca Island- a formidable prey for a formidable predator.

Rinca Island. Nobody lives here other than the Park Rangers with around 1100 Komodo Dragons to keep them company.

All very happy that something on this little expedition had finally gone right. Here we are with our guide and his stick and a very friendly Canadian called Ken who was sharing the boat with us.

Still only about 9am we were served breakfast on the boat. Main course was fried eggs with very oily fried bread- we mainly ate the fruit.

Setting sail once again, this time headed for Komodo Island. We spent a relaxing couple of hours sat on the bow of the boat in the sunshine with the sea breeze blowing.

As we approached Komodo it appeared that the whole island had a Dragon-like look about it.

Komodo Island has slightly more Dragons than Rinca (about 1300) but due to the layout of the island they tend to inhabit a much wider range. This combined with the thicker foliage makes them much harder to spot. We did, however, see lots of it's favourite prey which, unlike Rinca, are Deer.

A Komodo Island Orchid.

Finally, out of their natural habitat, we found some Dragons. Taking advantage of the huts to shade themselves from the midday sun several were lying around in Komodo Village. Probably also attracted by the cooking smells they appeared totally uninterested in the people walking around. Indeed to the handful of villagers who live here they are a part of everyday life. However it is wise not to get too complacent, the huts are on stilts for a reason- in the past small children have been taken, and eaten, by the Dragons.

This raised platform allowed us to get exceptionally close to this one.

A perfect opportunity to get some close up shots of it's head...

...and it's huge, fearsome looking claws.

Unfortunately our time with the Komodo Dragons was all too brief and it was soon time to set off on the several hour boat trip back to Labuan Bajo and civilisation. However there was time on the way back for us to go snorkelling on a beautiful section of reef just off this white sand beach.

We had been lucky and avoided rain the whole day but as we approached the town it was clear that they had not. The shimmering arc of a rainbow spanned the sky before gradually fading into dusk.

A fitting end to the day was this golden sunset and we all agreed that the tour company, despite their apparent best efforts, had not managed to ruin our trip to Komodo after all.