Labaunbajo - Komodo Dragons

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Komodo Safari...

Today has been the most amazing day of my travels in Indo so far!

This morning on the way to the first dive site we stopped off at Rinca Island. This is one os the 3 islands in the National Park where you can find the Komodo Dragons!

So on the way there Nero, one of the dive instructors briefs us about the dragons. He used to be a park ranger on Komodo Island. There are just 3000 of the dragons left on Earth, they can grow to 4 metres long and they eat anything! including people. A swiss guy apparently visited the island 30 years ago, he chartered a boat and went to see the dragons on his own. he was never seen again! All they found of him was his glasses and camera. There is a crucifix up on the hill in memory of him. On Komodo Island they used to feed the dragons every afternoon to draw in the tourists. But thats been stopped now as it was realised that this wasn't a natural way for them to live. As a result of the feeding stopping the dragons became very aggressive and everytime they smelt blood or saw red clothing they went crazy and attacked! They have been known to chase people. Guess who's got a red t shirt on today? yes that would be me! Nero told us how one morning he woke up to find a dragon breaking down the door of his hut ! he escaped through the window just before the dragon destroyed everything inside. This happened because he was stupid and left an empty box in his hut that had had food in it. The dragons naturally came to the island many years ago, no one knows how as they hate water....but they can swim! very very fast!

We spent about an hour on the island, they didn't seem perturbed by my red t shirt thank god. I was at the back of the line at one point though and every time I heard a noise I would jump and turn around expecting a dragon to be chasing me. We were shown round by a guide with a really big stick, these guys lived on the island all year!. We saw 4 dragons, 1 huge one, one baby and 2 medium. They are really hard to spot as they are the same colour as the dry sandy ground. There was one laying at the foot of a tree in the leaves. It took me a couple of minutes to spot it as it was so well camoflauged! see the pic. Thank god for the guide or we might possibly have walked straight past all of them, of even worse stepped on one. I cut my foot at one point on this sharp twig and it bled a little....the stories Nero was telling us earlier were running through my head...I mean what if they caught whiff of my blood?!?

They eat the wild buffalo and pigs that roam the island, but they only eat there prey dead. What happens is they bite it and then wait...their bite contains loads of bacteria which eventually kills the prey, but this can take 3 weeks!! Good job they only have to eat every month or so.

I got a good video of the huge one walking underneath the guides hut, they walk just like you imagine dinosaurs did, really slow and lethargic...they don't look like they could run anywhere but I've been told not to be fooled by there sloth like appearance.

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Photos

Komodo Dragons...
it took me a few minutes to spot this one