Marg & John Moxon's travels 2018: Komodo Island: Meeting the dragons

Komodo dragon

After six days at sea – since leaving Brisbane – we arrived at Komodo Island which is just 200 miles east of Bali. It is a volcanic island, one of 17,508 islands which make up the Republic of Indonesia. It is re-known for the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard on earth. There are about 2000 people living on Komodo, most of them descendants of nomadic Bajau and Bugis fisherman and/or of felons who were placed on the island by the Sultanate of Bima. The convicts were left to fend for themselves and many did not survive.

Margaret on tender

Sea Princess anchored around 6:00 am this morning and will be leaving at 4:00 pm. Those of us who were able – no wheelchair users - or those who were not scared off by the Destination Talk the other day went ashore by tender on either a Princess tour or a private tour. Going ashore independently is forbidden – humans can be food for these large lizards too and people have been killed or badly injured. The lizards can run short distances at 15-20 miles per hour and have no predators. Certainly not humans. They can swim and climb as well. And they are venomous

Entrance to Komodo National Park

The island is very dry – it has good rain only in January. Most seedlings we saw on the dusty tracks were shrivelled and brown. The houses are raised off the ground, not surprisingly. The Komodo National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage site - was established in 1980 to ensure the Komodo dragons were protected. The long-time inhabitants (about 300 people in 1930) did not kill these dangerous animals because they believed the Dragons were the reincarnation of their ancestors.

We met our group’s English-speaking ranger and guides after a long walk along a concrete pier. Each guide – front and back of the group had a long two-pronged stick to fend off the dragons. Any woman having their periods had to notify the guide. That didn’t affect our group! All the women were well into retirement! That’s the nature of our 106-day cruise. It’s a rare cruiser who isn’t retired.

A baby Komodo dragon

We saw our first Komodo dragon on the beach and using John’s Canon, I was able to film it walking through a sunny patch. They are hard to see in the shade. This lizard was about two metres long – a mid-sized dragon. As directed, we stayed well away, behind the guide.

The dragons eat their young, so the babies instinctively know to climb trees when they hatch, or burrow into the soft insides of fallen palm tree trunks. Sometimes eagles swoop and take away the baby dragons from the trees. One must feel sorry for the young Komodo Dragons! I suppose it’s the only way to keep the population down, since the adults have no predators. Each adult needs to eat 40 kg at a time, about once a month.

At the top of the hill with our guide

After being given a bottle of water or soft drink – the temperature was about 30C and it was about 10:30 am – our group of about 20 walked for about 2.5 kms along a gravelly, dusty track through shade and sun, not seeing much wildlife. It was too hot and late in the morning. We were rather disappointed. We saw a wild boar and some deer and a few birds.