Here Be Dragons!!!

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So, for the final installment of our Indonesian blogs the theme is dragons. Komodo Dragons to be precise, a prehistoric throwback that bears a passing resemblance to a crocodile on a bad hair day, at least until they move that is, when the Naomi Campbell hips come into play. They are one of the deadliest predators known to man, dominant in their natural habitat to such an extent that animals (food) are bred in the national park to provide enough sustinance. In a single sitting a fully grown adult dragon can eat up to 80% of its bodyweight, around 50kg. Thankfully, I am a shade under 80kg myself and as a result off the menu, but that didn't stop me keeping my distance when we encountered them in the wild.

The dragons are spread over a handful of small islands off the west coast of Flores, principally in Komodo and Rinca, both of which we visited as part of our 4 day cruise to Lombok from Flores. I'll let the photos do most of the talking to be honest, and there will be a video up on Youtube later to fill in the gaps.

The rest of our boat trip was spent snorkelling or swimming or eating really, nothing of note but for the stunning sunsets and fabulous views along the way. The destination was Lombok, the Bali's easterly neighbour but we didn't hang around too long sadly before boarding another boat and heading to the Gili Islands for another dose of paradise. We had visited the Gilis earlier in the Year and the decision to return was taken relatively quickly - pristine beaches, clear waters, great food, no motor vehicles, what is not to like?!

SO for 9 days we had a holiday, sunbathed, snorkelled and generally relazed - not exactly ideal preparation for our next adventure - Gunung Bromo. We made our way to Lombok's fancy new International Airport (though it only serves three domestic locations!) and caught a flight to Surabaya, on the island of Java. From there we took a rickety local bus and an even rickety-ier minibus to a small hotel halfway up the side of a montain.

Gunung Bromo is a highly active and occasionally dangerous Volcano, eastern Java's most visited tourist site i believe. We had misjudged our hotel choice the night we arrived, and when we awoke to climb to the summit and see the smoky caldera we realised we were 7km away from the top. Undeterred we strapped on our walking sandals, stocked up on the local equiavlent of Kendal Mint Cake and set off. 3 hours later, having climbed up a 1:3 incline and travered the aptly named Sea of Sand, we made it to the top and peered over the edge. Again, have a look at the photos for more details!

After another day in the vicinity of Bromo we headed to Yogyakarta for a few days, then caught a plane to Singapore to meet up with some old firends. Singapore is a dangerous place, somehow the shops managed to relieve me of my credit card every 10 minutes! After lots of shopping and lots of great food, we boarded the penultimate plane of this leg of the journey - Destination: Melbourne!

The final flight saw us land in Sydney on Thursday 22nd December, and that as they say, is that! What the future holds we have no idea, though at some stage the dreaded word "Job" has been mentioned, so the updates may be a little less frequent for a while, but I am sure there will be something to report at some stage.



Anyway, Merry Christmas from Sydney and Happy New Year!!!

Tom & Anja

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