Sunday, August 30, 2015

8/30 -- More Dragons, More Snorkeling

This time we headed out earlier (7am) to a closer island to see more Komodo Dragons and used a nice-looking old style fishing boat which was a lot slower than the speedboats we took two days ago.

Lower deck of our boat

Upper Deck
 Rinca (pronounced "Rincha") Island has a Komodo population of about 2,000. We saw a total of 10 dragons, including a mom guarding her nest and two three-year olds, newly on the ground from being tree-bound.  These little guys are more active than the older ones because they need to eat more often and they are still in danger of becoming lunch from the older ones.
Interesting warning sign on Rinca Island landing.We saw no
evidence of crocodiles other than the sign.
Official park entrance
There were a lot of macaque monkeys in the park too.

Our first dragon on this island, trying to look like a log.

Young dragon getting used to living on land instead of in
trees. It is still light enough to climb  if needed.

Close up of his head, which looks blue-green.

Timor deer -- walking lunch cart for the dragons.

This mess of holes and built up dirt is a nest for the bird below.
They reuse them several years until a dragon appropriates one.

Guinea fowl (?) -- nest builder to the dragons.

This is now a dragon nest with several decoy holes. Only one
has eggs.
Mom is hiding behind a nearby tree and will guard the eggs for
3-4 months, about half their incubation time.
The rangers here work 10 days on and 10 off, staying in dorms on
the island. Several Komodos hang out and  have become somewhat
accustomed to people. These are 3 of a group of 5 resting mostly
in the shade of an elevated dorm.

This guy decided the grass was greener elsewhere and got up
to move.

He is walking closer to where the other dragons are dozing.
He finally walks past another dragon and flops down on the ground.

See if you can find the 5 dragons here.

This is another juvenile. We were not able to talk anyone from
our group into standing close to him to provide a frame of
reference...;-).

The little guy close up



Then he got up for a walk.

I guess he was thirsty.

We had lunch on the boat as we sailed to another smaller island, Kelor, where we had another opportunity to snorkel. The boat was able to anchor to the shore because the side we approached dropped off steeply, but there was good shallower snorkeling a short swim away. The worst part was getting into the water -- it was much chillier that the snorkeling area in shallower water! We saw more clown fish today (Nemo), a puffer fish and several of the dinky cobalt blue dealies. We also saw a pale lavender polka dot fish with long wavy fins. Totally new to both of us. I was concerned about over-tiring, so I headed back to the boat after abut 30 minutes, while Jim stayed out and later reported that he was attacked by several fish, including three who bit him! Several other snorkelers reported the same problem. The theory is that we were disrupting their territory. Again, no pictures of fish.
When we got back to the dock in the park, so many
other big boats had tied up that we had to have a
dinghy come and get us in three stages. Here, the
second group back is making their way on board.

Lunch on the boat --more than we could possibly eat.

Kelor Island where we tied up to swim and snorkel. The best stuff
to see was in the vicinity of the rock on the left side of the island.

Finally we headed back to shore to prep for dinner and flying back to Bali tomorrow.
Our hotel from the boat. We are on the third floor, right side,
hidden by trees,

I want this boat (but  not the upkeep...)

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