Komodo's Critters!

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We had a good start to our time on the island of Flores as we won a contest on the one-hour flight over and got a free nights stay in a nice fancy hotel. I have a feeling it wasn't totally random. They probably looked to see who was a foreigner by the booking name and who was staying a long time based on air tickets. Unfortunately, it was about 3km outside of the town of Labuanbajo so it wasn't the most convenient of places. We checked into ma simple bamboo hut at gardenia hoitel instead, but took a "bemo" taxi to go check it out. It was pretty fancy, with a gorgeous pool overlooking the ocean and a nice room with air conditioning and hot water. The hotel restaurant, the only option for eating nearby, was outrageously priced - it cost more for a plate of chicken and chips than our accommodation! In the end, we didn't stay there at all as it was way too inconvenient, preferring our centrally located bamboo hut. We gave the voucher to our British dive master at the end of our stay as he said he'd love a hot shower one day!

Our first impression of the ramshackle town of Labuanbajo was that it was a cross between any small town in India or Africa. We arrived just as a huge ferry had arrived so the town was crazy with a swarm of honking bemos and trucks. Pretty soon, however, it settled down to its usual somewhat sleepy state.

We spent a lot of time beneath the water diving. Each morning, we'd get up for an early breakfast at "The Corner" before heading to the broken pier to board Dive Komodo's boat at 7:30am. It took two and a half hours to reach the northern dive sites, time which could be spent catching up with other travellers or catching up on some sleep after the daily 4:30am wake-up call by the mosque! The long journey each day was worth it, though, with some great diving amongst sharks, eagle rays, vibrant shoals of fish, and moray eels to name but a few.

One of the most famous dive sites is Castle Rock. This was the location of our first Komodo dive but it turned out pretty stressful for me. We descended straight down to 25 meters and, by the time we reached the reef, my mask was completely flooded. So I cleared it. It flooded again. And again. I realized that something was wrong, and I motioned to the dive master. He signalled to me to switch masks with him. Tentatively, annoyed at missing the sharks that I could barely see circling us, I took off my mask, squeezing my eyes shut to avoid letting my contact lenses float out, and felt around for his mask. I tried it on. It didn't make a seal and I began to feel panicky. Being blind at 25 meters in a fairly strong current is a bit alarming! I signalled to switch back and felt the familiar cloth strap of my own mask. Phew! Unfortunately, I had to clear it on every breath for the rest of the dive and, upon surfacing an hour later, found that the frame had cracked. It was useless. Luckily the dive shop had extras for me, and I ended up buying one of them.

The next time we dove Castle Rock, I must have been a bit nervous as I burnt through my air quickly and, for the first time in 98 dives, I had to surface early. Of course, Scott, Ryan, and our DM Guy saw a pod of four dolphins (including a baby) and 6 sharks soon after I surfaced. TYPICAL!!! Still, I got some really good dves in and, by the end, I was just about getting confident in strong currents. Oh, and I did my 100th dive in Komodo but broke tradition by not diving naked!

We broke up the diving with island visits and the obligatory trip to see the area's most famous inhabitants: the Komodo Dragons. We started on the island of Kanawa, which was really pretty as you will see in the photos, but the whole island had a sewage smell which was rather off-putting. Next, we tried Suraya Island. This was much better for us, with a nicer beach and a much better/well-run resort. Both islands were very basic, the kind of place where you get electricity for only four hours a day, running water only one hour a day, shower with a bucket (called a 'mandi') and flush the toilet by collecting buckets of sea water so as to preserve your one bucket of fresh water for showering.

The trip to the island of Rinca to see the dragons turned out to be far better than we had anticipated. We hired a boat wth two Polish girls and opted for the two hour hike. Before we even set off, we saw about 10 dragons all hanging out by the kitchen! On the walk, however, we were lucky enough to see four in the wild. One was sleeping and didn't react at all when the guide poked it with a stick, so we all got close to take a photo. The others were quite active and, having seen a water buffalo with a bloody injury, waiting to die, we decided not to push our luck and kept a reasonably safe distance. Once back at camp, we saw a few more wandering around, making for the best photo opportunities.

I was sad to leave Komodo and Labuanbajo. I'll miss the sunset beers at Paradise bar and the gorgeous calzone at "The Lounge" - yum! (The diving wasn't bad either! )

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Comments

[Patricia Somewhere]

wow!
You guys find the most amazing places. Sharon, when will you be pulishing a travel book?

[Born to travel]

Ha ha...
Ha ha...would love to but not sure how to go about it. We are not the only ones to travel lots!