Komodo (The greatest week ever!)

After a brief stop in Bali for some more oysters and a massage we went to the airport and bought tickets to Labuanbajo in Flores. We knew the flight was not a major route but after receiving handwritten boarding passes we began to realise what sort of flight it was. Calls were heard over the Tannoy for various other flights until finally a man in the corner shouted out ‘Transnusa, Labuan Bajo’ and a few of us were ushered onto a bus which took us past all the big planes to a little old one at the end complete with vehicle to tow it to the runway. Actually the flight was fine, in fact it was far better than Easyjet or Ryanair, we even got a roll and a drink. The airport at Labuan Bajo was a little different in that there was a gate next to the landing strip where people just walked out, no customs, no immigration, not even a building. The luggage carousel consisted of two little Indonesian men carrying each bag to a table and asking whose it was making sure that they didn’t dislodge their cigarettes in the process. Luckily for us a local guy saw we were new in town and offered us a lift into the centre.
Initially LB was quite intimidating with lots of locals asking you if you wanted ‘transport’ which meant a ride on their motorbike and as LB was so small you felt the whole town knew you were there. After the mandatory long walk in the heat we found somewhere to stay. It was a bamboo hut with a decent fan, clean mattress, very good mosquito net and great view. On the downside it was right next to the Mosque so we had a daily 5am wake-up call. Also the toilet left a little to be desired as did the power shower (see below):



Once settled in we went in search of a boat to charter as we wanted to visit Komodo Island to see the famous dragons. As expected prices were hugely inflated so we were fortunate to meet a Dutch guy named Andre in one office who was trying to arrange a similar trip to us. He had also met five others and so now as an eight we were in a far stronger bargaining position. Andre, Alex and I bargained hard and showed little mercy in arranging our tour, although we had to compromise slightly on safety as no boats had radios and ours had four lifejackets between the eight of us.

The next day our global team met at 7am for the start of our trip. We had representatives from Holland, England, France, Italy, Germany and China. Our crew of three did not speak English but were excellent and always made sure we were looked after. Our first destination was an uninhabited beach for a spot of snorkelling then after a fresh fish and rice buffet lunch on board we headed to Rinca (2 hours from LB), home of the Komodo Dragon. During our first trek we saw around 20 dragons though due to the heat of the day they were mostly lying down regulating their body temperature. Our park guide was excellent and made our trek even more fun when he showed us some Komodo dragon remains after one dragon had been eaten by another. We were extra pleased we had him as a guide when he said, ‘take some of the remains as a souvenir but don’t show the guards’. I now own a Komodo dragon claw.


We then began our journey to the next island, Komodo itself (2 ½ hours). We arrived at around 5.30 just in time to see the flying foxes begin to fly from the trees. We had a lovely Ikan (fish) dinner and then began to chat the night away helped by some local homebrewed rice whiskey. The stars that night were like nothing we had ever seen and seemed to cover the entire sky. We all decided a night swim was in order and jumped off the boat. Jake the other Brit on the boat, just out of school and about to go to Newcastle Uni to study French and Politics (and another Forest fan to boot) was first in. He had never seen the phosphorescence created by the plankton before and exclaimed, "F**K French and Politics, I’m doing Cosmology and Marine Biology!" In truth the phosphorescence had to be seen to be believed and we all went to bed on deck with big smiles on our faces.

Those smiles however did not last the night as we had a very thin sun lounger cover to sleep on and no pillows or blankets to keep us warm. Alex and I slept on the roof of the boat, the plus side being an incredible view of the amazing night sky, the only negative being hypothermia. Nobody slept well and we all looked worse for wear as we entered Komodo Island at eight a.m. Even seeing a pod of dolphins that morning was not enough to invigorate us. At Komodo we were lead on a thoroughly uninspiring walk by some local boys who were nice enough, though as a science subject leader I’d have to question some of their scientific vocabulary choices. When asked how the dragons mate we were told and I quote "He puts his forked c**k in her p***y and they f**k for seven hours." I’m sure David Attenborough described it differently.

Just as we were coming to the end of the walk, everything changed. Along the beach we saw a huge, ferocious, prehistoric looking dragon walking towards us, then another from out of the trees, his slow walk becoming a run, ungainly yet plainly powerful. We all knew that one bite from a dragon and the bacteria in its saliva would kill us. The dragons squared up to each other but the rangers, armed only with sticks, steered one away. The other one however was not so easily deterred and continued walking in our direction less than two metres from us. Fortunately the rangers found another stick to help steer the dragons away, unfortunately they gave it to me. For some reason I wasn’t scared, in fact I loved it. They are without doubt the most beautiful creatures I’d ever seen and I feel that I have fulfilled a personal little dream in seeing them.

We headed back to the boat and off to our next snorkelling destination ‘Manta Point’ where we snorkelled with no less than 12 manta rays. We even saw 4 of them perform a sort of dance in which they all moved in circles within each other. What a morning we’d had! After another hearty boat lunch we began the four and a half hour trip home. We were all exhausted but all beaming like the Komodo that got the goat.

For some reason we decided that we would go back to Rinca the following day, this time to scuba dive. Wow! On our first dive we saw sharks that were around three metres in length, giant travellies, schools of fusiliers, tuna, a turtle and puffa fish that let you swim right up to them. Our second dive was also pretty good. To top off the day, on our way back a pod of dolphins decided to swim alongside, around and in front of our boat. We could see them gliding under the surface from the boat deck (obviously Alex had called them earlier with her dolphin whispering skills).

We had planned to leave LB the next day but after our amazing diving, we decided to sign up to the three day package. The next day we got even luckier, nobody else had signed up to dive, this meant that we had the boat to ourselves, the best possible divemaster ratio and a free choice of where we wanted to dive. We were visibly excited by the prospect and were certainly not disappointed. We took the boat two and a quarter hours out towards Komodo Island and stopped at a dive site called Batu Balong. As soon as we were under the water we saw a huge humped back Jackfish. Then we turned around and there was a 2 metre long white tipped reef shark lying on the sea bed. We inched closer and closer and it didn’t seem to mind. We got almost within touching distance and just watched him for what seemed like ages. We saw a lovely turtle, a few more sharks and two enormous moray eels. Our second dive of the day was probably the most difficult dive we have ever done as the current was very strong and we had to be careful of down currents which are like under water whirlpools and very dangerous. Alex and I had just swum a particularly nasty bit and were looking for come coral to safely cling to whilst our divemaster tried to locate two tiny pygmy seahorses. At that point four huge manta rays swam right next to us. We just starred in utter amazement and disbelief at these incredible creatures, so huge yet so graceful. Throughout the dive we saw another six huge mantas though not at such close range. After the dive we both agreed it was the best dive we’d ever done. Then as we ate our beautifully cooked fresh ikan, sambal and nasi on the boat and drank fresh banana and papaya juice, we came to the conclusion that this was the most incredible week of our lives.