8/28 -- Komodo Island, Finding Nemo

We took a 1 hour+ boat ride to Komodo Island this morning in our quest to see Komodo Dragons in the wild. About half way through a 1.5 hour  hike, there was a dragon near a man-made watering hole. Apparently she has been in the area for several days, slowly moving from east to west (?). We also saw several Timor Deer, a primary prey animal (can you spell moving food cart?) including one not far from the young female dragon. Komodo dragons can move quickly for short distances, but are opportunistic and kill their prey indirectly -- they have nasty bacteria in their mouths and bite, then follow their prey until they succumb to the bacteria. They have lousy eyesight and hearing, but can smell blood and carrion from a mile away.

The blue boat on the left looks like one of the two we took to
Komodo Island.

In addition to the National Park, the island is home to a
village of about 1,000 people.

Timor deer, transported here many years ago.

Nasty looking HUGE spider -- body is about
an inch long.

Our first view of a dragon -- a young female.

She seemed very passive and willing to  pose.

Orchids we saw on our  hike back to the beach.

Back near the beach, we encountered a bunch of  spread out dragons, probably 9 of them. We needed to be careful not to get closer than 15 feet, and the rangers all  had forked sticks to keep the dragons at bay. We were also advised not to separate ourselves from the group.

This one was on the move and apparently took exception to
one of his neighbors -- he roared and stuck out his tongue
repeatedly.

He is on the attack, but his foe acts like he is asleep and
totally ignores the provocations. He looked smaller, so that
was probably a decent strategy.

A ranger encouraged us to pose a safe distance from this dragon.

In addition to the deer and dragons, we also saw a wild boar. Boars are a more challenging prey because they squeal when hurt and other boars come to their rescue and fight the dragons.

Dragons appropriate the nests of a brown chicken-like bird and enlarge them. The female lays 20-30 eggs, but few survive. They are about 10 inches long when hatched and spend their first 3 years primarily in trees because they are in danger of being eaten by grown dragons. Komodo Island has one human settlement of about 1000 people and maybe as many as 3,900 dragons,which can grow to 9 feet long.

Next, we hopped back in the boat for a ride to a quiet beach for lunch and snorkeling. This is known as a pink sand beach, and maybe a third of the sand grains were reddish. We found interesting shells and collected sand too. Snorkeling was the best I have seen (compared to Hawaii and the Galapagos). There were so many kinds of coral and fish! Of course, we have no photos,  but OMG. Jim found a sea star in a deep periwinkle color, we saw an itty bitty cobalt blue fish, 2 clown fish (Nemo!!), angel fish, and dozens of others that I have no idea what they were.

In Labuan Bajo harbor, this is the same boat under construction
that we saw two days ago from the shore.

Back in Labuan Bajo,  we rested for an hour or so before dinner in the hotel. I was more wiped out by our snorkeling than anticipated, and we collapsed in bed early. Wifi speed has also been pretty slow here, making internet activities a bit frustrating. The middle of the afternoon seems to be when we have the least competition for bandwidth.