Day 41 of 111 - At sea after Komodo Island on way to Singapore

Day 41 of 111 – Sea day after Komodo Island on the way to Singapore.

What an amazing time seeing the Komodo Dragons. The must be the most hideous animal I have ever seen.  From their large size, to their tremendous appetites to their ungodly smell, their ugly look is sure to terrorize! About 10 minutes into our guided tour we came upon a group of 4 Komodo dragons at a watering hole. Initially they were just lying down and we were able to approach within about 20 feet.  The guides have these forked sticks, about 6’ long and we were assured that if any of the komodos got aggressive the guides, using these seemingly flimsy sticks, could redirect their advances away from the tasty tourists. This the guides were able to do whenever a komodo started moving towards us.  A couple of times I did feel uncomfortable when one guide would redirect a dragon’s approach just to have them redirected towards other tourists.  Yikes! It is unnerving knowing that one bite by the creatures could cause unstoppable bleeding because of their anti-coagulant saliva. We then circled the 4 sedentary komodos just to end up downwind of these pungent, giant creatures. I have never smelled anything so foul! They say these dragons only eat about once a month, sometimes 80% of their body weight, and then lye around digesting their prey.  This digestive process must be what produced the terrible smell so we were glad to move away from these overpowering animals. Watching them lumber around, flicking their forked tongues and swaying side to side looking for the weak tourist amongst us made you feel a bit uneasy.  

Look how close you could stand to the Komodo dragons!

Guide with forked stick.

Baby Komodo in sight of the ship.

Next it was on to Pink Beach.  From the pier we boarded a “rickety” boat that was obviously a floating home. We took a 25 minutes ride to within sight of the pink beach. We then boarded a small motorboat and headed for the beach. 8 of us plus two guides in the 10 foot boat seemed a bit overcrowded, but we all made it to shore safely. One small jump from the boat to the shore assured our survival.  It was well worth it.  The beach, with it’s pink hue and the bath-like, crystal-clear water were amazing.  Snorkeling, it about 10’ of water then revealed the most beautiful coral and fish we have seen to date.  Even after 5 scuba dives, including two on the Great Barrier Reef, those could not match our snorkeling colors seen at the Pink Beach on Komodo Island.

Beautiful coral.

Snorkeling at the Pink Beach.

Amazing fish.

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