Day 135
It's safe to say, we are a little excited! We have breakfast outside our room and then a guy picks us up to take us to the boat, grabbing snorkels and flippers as we go. We get in a lime green boat similar to the Thai ones we went on and set off, and are instantly in awe of the beautiful scenery around us. It's stunning, the best way to describe it is like Jurassic Park mixed with the Lake District, it's just beautiful.
We trundle along for just over an hour when suddenly the boat stops, oh no, it can't be a trip for us without something going wrong. The driver jumps overboard and then comes back on shaking his head at his friend. Are we sinking? Turns out yes but they have a hand pump that one of them frantically uses for the rest of the day and they seem happy so we are. Nothing is going to stop us seeing dragons.
The journey is a little slower for the next park but suddenly the park entrance comes into view and Ben is so excited to speak! We get off the boat and are met by a guide who walks us through the first part to the rangers office so we can buy our tickets. That all done and our route for the trek around the island picked, the medium one, we set off. We literally walk 15 steps when I hear an excited squeak in front of me and I look around to see what Ben's spotted and there it is. A 2 and 1/2 meter long Komodo Dragon is lounging in front of us on the path. So so cool. He walks pretty sluggish and clumsily as he heads across from us and I can't work out where he's going until he suddenly slumps to the ground, under a tree, ah shade! We've got on the island about 10am and that's when the dragons normally take their first naps of the day, this is brilliant for us as because they are sleepy we can get closer than normal to get some snaps.
Ben's pretty chuffed to have got so close to his favourite animal and I can believe I've seen a real life one! We continue walking and I'm taking in all the scenery around us, not really paying attention but suddenly the guide puts his stick out in front of me, I jolt back to the land of the living and look down to see I've nearly walked into 3 napping dragons, eek. Not like they eat humans of anything. Ben's camera is going snapping crazy again and we watch as one gets up and starts pestering the other to walk up, hopefully not just because he's smelt fresh pray. The last of the 3 is snoring and I'm pretty chuffed as they are massive and could definitely gang up on me if all awake.
After loads of picture taking, we walk a little further to see rustling ahead of us and a baby one pops out of the corner. The first ones we saw were about 30 years old where as this one is spot 2 or 3 and moves a lot faster, the guide is a lot warier of this one compared to his larger sleeping friends. After scooting round it, we begin out trek and first go see the nests which aren't being using at the moment as the mating season is July to August. When the lady dragon lays her eggs, she will protect them quite fiercely from other dragons, this maternal instinct doesn't seem to continue once they are hatched and it seems a bit of a free for all and they will quite happily eat them, nice.
We carry on through the forest at this point and although we don't see any more dragons we do see some really cool trees and learn some more facts, like Komodo Dragons only need to eat every 2-3 weeks as they can eat half of their body weight when they feed! They will also quite happily eat a baby monkey or pig whole and just wait till it dies in its stomach, again nice. We hit an open landscape now and climb up a hill to get an amazing view of the island.
On the walk down we spot some monkeys who seem to be fighting bit our guide growls at them and they seem to stop. We are back at the main office now and I'm a bit worried Ben will be disappointed we didn't spot any more dragons on route but I have nothing to fear, he's insanely happy :D We get back on the boat now and have some lunch of yummy Indoesian curry with peanut Tempe and fish. We are heading off to do some snorkelling now which is only about an hour from Rinca on our way back to LBJ.
The island is small but the guy assures us that is has a good reef so we don our gear and splash in. The first part which is right from the boat is really disappointing, it seems to mainly be dead coral and a few silver fish, not impressed really. We go back to the boat and the driver points us left and then suddenly things started to get awesome. First we spot a little bit of coral and fish like we saw in Mantigue but as we go further around the corner it comes alive.
The coral is the most beautifulist I have ever seen with the most amazing bright colours and all shapes and sizes. Hundreds of different types of fish are darting in between it all and I get dizzy trying to keep up with them all. We are in love. We have a slight mask malfunction on Ben's part so we swap but he still can't get comfortable which is a little frustrating but honestly the second you put your head under the water it was all forgotten. We managed to get a few videos which I will upload once we have edited them but it just doesn't do it all justice. We swim around for about an hour and a half before we are both shattered and clamber onto the boat, reading to go back.
We aren't back for more than a few minutes, when I start to feel a little peaky. Thinking its a little bit of sun stroke I slip some water and try and rehydrate but as I start to get sicker and my neck gets sore I remember, anti malarials! We have to take them for this part of Indonesia and how I'm feeling is exactly the same as I felt for those first few days in Laos, urg. We are both pooped and quite full still from our curries and with me a little queasy we settle in for a night of Big Lebowski and cards.
Day 136
After the jam packed day of yesterday and with me still feeling rubbish, we have a slow morning, taking in the incredible scenery and me slipping ginger tea. At about 1, we head down to the town for some lunch and to go in search of the port that we need to leave from in the morning. Food for me is rare tuna salad which is amazing and Ben goes for Baracuda and Sangrea, this being by the sea lark is just brilliant.
After a hot and sticky walk looking for our port and going down several wrong alleys we find it and with ice creams in hand we wander back up the evil, hot hill which I think is getting steeper each time we walk in to cool down. We head back just before sun set and set up camp in the Italian place to get some good snaps whilst being pestered by pizza loving kitties. The town has a power cut just as the sun goes down which we both groan at as we haven't packed our bags yet for the morning and doing it in the dark without air con wasn't going to be fun but wahey for the steep hill, our place has power!! We pack and then an early night for, as always, an early start and a very epic adventure ahead.
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