Dragons

---

Early on the 5th September we tied the dinghy to the wooden pier at 7am and met our guide, Adi, who had come down to meet us. As we returned to the office there were several dragons lying around. Alex is a big fan of the “How to Train your Dragon” series and I think disappointed these dragons didn’t fly nor breath fire. We spotted one dragon walking, lumbered along and upset another that was minding its own business, in a small confrontation that caused a bit of excitement as the ranger was worried it might dart off in our direction - hard to imagine them moving at any speed.

We then went for our walk, passed a dragon guarding its eggs in a huge nest (depressions in the dry mud ground), through woods, over dried streams, up and down hills and we didn’t see another dragon until we returned to the ranger’s office!

After a coffee we returned to Luna Ray, shooing away the monkeys on the pier trying to pinch stuff from our dingy and headed out of the bay into headwinds again. We joked that by the time we came around the island and headed south again the wind would change and come from the south…. an hour or two later this came true! We had read that the currents between Rinca and Padar Islands can be strong and apparently against us as the tied dropped however we actually had about 2-5 knots with us, and we reached 10 knots at one point! The water was very disturbed with eddies, whirlpools and overfalls all over the place making hard work for the autopilot. Turned into the calm water of the large bay “Lehok Ginggo” and caught a 5.5 kg 80 cm Giant Trevalli on the lure!…. and this one didn’t get away, Naomi gaffed it, filleted it, and cooked it up into a delicious coconut curry.



The large bay was deserted and we dropped anchor close to one of the numerous beaches which had monkeys playing on it. We went ashore and I thought it might be fun to burn off our rubbish and for the first time in Indonesia there was a sign saying no fires! Alex played in the water while I went for a stroll to see if I could find more dragons but no luck. Naomi stayed in the beach, fearful of the rangers stories of the giant lizards hunting down monkeys, deer, water-buffalow and wild horses - quite surprising for what seems quite a docile animal. Apparently they creep up on them when they are sleeping, bite them and the victim either gets a broken leg or slowly dies in the next week or two from infection (so a meal takes some planning). Monkeys are easier as they can be quickly dispatched by a swing from the dragons tail.



Luke

---

Photos

On our dragon hike
Luna Ray anchored in the background in Teluk Buaya

Comments

[Virginia]

monkey business
what a handsome young pirate Alex must feel confused..... is dad Santa Claus with a beard or is he King Neptune ??????, be carefull don't touch the monkeys they can have a disease...the photos are lovely Luke . Love Ginny xxxx