Hanging out with some bad breathed lizards

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Hi folks!!!

Got back out of Bali pretty quick and headed for Mataram in Lombok to start our 4 day boat trip to Kimodo and Rinca. Weren't too sure what to expect but the agent had assured us that there would be a proper toilet... well at least more than leaning over the edge of a boat!!Living was pretty basic, the upper deck was the communal bedroom and the sea was the bathroom. The crew and 12 other passenger were a really good bunch of folk, so we had a great laugh along the way.

We motored out from a harbour in the southeast of Lombok, along the coast of sumbawa, across the open sea to the islands of Komodo and Rinca and then on to Lubhan Bajo in Flores. Stopping to go snorkelling or to swim ashore to see the sights on some of the smaller islands.

The waters were really beautiful and clear and just snorkelling we saw loads of life including nemo's, lionfish and cuttlefish. One unlucky cuttlefish met his doom. It was all a bit of a trauma really as one minute we're watching the little fellow floating about in the water, sucking on the sand. The next there's a spear through him and the cuttlefish's spurting a tanker load of ink, turning black then to flashing red and purple. Unknown to us one snorkeller had gone back to the boat and told the captain what we had found. He had then stripped superman style, grapped his spear and was in the water like a shot to catch us our dinner.

That night was particularly hairy on the open sea and while most people were green and queasy i was tucking into a lovely bowl of sweet and sour Chumi-chumi. The little fellow was quite delicious!!!

We saw loads of dragons on Komodo ane Rinca. On Both islands a lot of the dragons hang around the kitchen huts, drawn there by the smell of food. The locals aren't supposed to feed the dragons due to conservation laws but most of then do. They would rather they ate fish heads than snacked on their chidren i guess. Not surprising it was the first place in indonesia where we saw no stray dogs. They looked pretty sleepy most of the time but they could shift pretty fast when they wanted to and gave out a Darthvader- esq rasp from time to time as a little warning to stay back.

Rinca was particularly impressive as we went on a walk for a couple hours around the island and were lucky enough to see some dragons out in the wild aswell as deer and water buffalos. One buffalo had had a big chunk taken out of him by a dragon. The dragons are pretty lazy hunters, once and animal has been bitten it takes about 3 weeks for bacteria from the dragons slimey chops to kill the animal. Then they go and sniff out the rotting corpse.

Our boat landed on the 4th night in Lubhan bajo which is a harbour, fishing port and base for diving in the Komodo national park. Our guesthouse looked out over the harbour and the rickety bamboo piers where the fisherman leave their fish out to dry in the sun. Fantastic to watch in the morning but not the most aromatic smell in the afternoon.

I had only intended to do one days diving but it was so awesome that i ended up diving for 3. The first day we opted for some of the smaller closer islands as the currents can be pretty fierce in the park and then did a few more challenging drift and deeper dives over the next two days. The range of coloured corals and hhe sealife was fantastic: pygmy seahorses, kaleidoscopic nudibranchs, clouds of hundreds of big and small fish, sharks ,mantas and turtles were all down there in the blue.

Having gone a little over budget on the diving getting the 1 hour flight back to Denpasar was not an option for us. Instead we took the 35 hour return trip on rusting ferries and bumpy bus rides back across the islands. We spent a few days back in Ubud where we caught a barong and gamalan show and bought our flight for Kalimantan.

Hope you enjoy the pics

Bye for now.

C and P

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