Komodo National Park with Flores Journey - Part Two

We left off Part One sleeping on the top deck of our amazing liveaboard boat.  While we slept, the boat was taking us to Komodo Island.  Komodo National Park is made up of 3 large islands: Rinca (where we first saw the dragons), Padar (where we hiked up to Three Points and played on Long Beach), and Komodo, along with various other lesser known smaller islands.

The ranger knew right where 3 large dragons were hanging out.  He led us directly to the water hole.  The only way to get your picture with one is to stand several yards behind it.  Unfortunately, the camera can either focus on you or the dragon, so someone has to be blurry.

They were at the water hole lying in wait for their prey to get thirsty.  The dragons can eat prey much larger than they are, like water buffalo, deer and wild boar, because they secrete a venom into the wound, after they bite it with their sharp teeth.  They can let the prey run off afterwards because it will die soon enough.  The dragon then tracks it and eats it.

This one could have been 10 ft long.

We kept all that in mind, which is why we stayed a healthy distance away, even though their lethargic behavior could easily fool you into thinking they were harmless.

On our walk, we saw these two owls asleep in the tree above us.  Owls are much more pleasant to walk under than the green viper we had seen the day before!  I circled the owls in orange to help you see them.

We were fortunate enough to see a komodo drinking water from a big shell and then walk some distance away.  They seem so much larger and more intimidating when you watch them move.  They can actually run up to 12mph, but we only saw them walk slowly.

The one in the sun is obvious.  The one behind it is almost camouflaged with the shadows and the staircase, but it's there!

On our way back to the boat, we spotted one more Timor deer, missing an antler.

From the dock we could look straight down into the clear water and see the coral and fish below.

We went to Pink Beach next.  This seemed to be a popular spot, with a small cruise boat docked offshore.  It was near sunset, so we just made sand sculptures instead of swimming.  Eric, Maya, and Charlie made a sand Godzilla!  Willow made a sand Komodo Dragon!

Godzilla!

Komodo Dragon!

Charlie taught Hans how to play War with a deck of cards.  Dinner, then bed.
The last day of our liveaboard still had plenty of exciting adventures in store.  We started the day by going to a sand spit called Taka Makassar.  If you're still following along on my interactive map, click here.

The water was very shallow around the sand spit.  We started snorkeling on one side and made our way around to the other side.  You could practically walk on your hands.

We saw sharks!!!

Next, we went manta ray spotting!  You can see them from the boat, since the water is so clear.  And once you see them, you jump in and swim with them!

The manta rays were so cool!  We were on a major high after swimming with them.

Next, we went to a spot known for sea turtles, called Siaba Island.   We found this one asleep on the bottom.  It's pretty far down to the bottom, but you can make him out nestled in the middle of the coral patch below.

We went into shallower water and found some beautiful corals and fish.

Then Willow started getting antsy because we hadn't seen any more turtles since the first one.  We had to go back into deeper water to search for them.  We got lucky!

Time to rest and have lunch.  Take another nap and read our books.

Do you want a tour of our boat?  Want to see where we go to the bathroom?  I thought you might.

Our last stop of the entire liveaboard adventure was Kanawa Island.  This place had so many fish, it felt like we were swimming in an aquarium!  Check out this trumpetfish we saw!  I had never seen any fish like that before.  I was squealing into my snorkel. 

We briefly saw this tiny red jellyfish floating past us.

 We saw many beautiful parrotfish, but this one just had gorgeous coloring.

 The little fish at the end of my finger was sitting very still on his rock.  As my finger got close, he zoomed off!

 And here's a gorgeous tunicate!

I saw a school of squid, but the video wasn't very clear.  Too bad too.  It was the only time I saw them, aside from on the dinner plate.

Willow and I saw herds of sea urchins. Watch the video to see it all!  I think it's funny how you can hear us laughing and talking through our snorkels.  

On the way out from Kanawa Island, we spotted this swing and these giant clam shells.  So big Maya could sit in them!  It took Willow AND Charlie just to lift one.

I just want to close by again thanking Flores Journey for the amazing job they did showing us all around Komodo National Park and taking us on so many adventures that I honestly can't believe we could fit it all in to 3 days. Huge shout out to Hans and Marsel especially.  You guys are awesome!

Komodo National Park with Flores Journey - Part One

I must admit that Komodo National Park is not a place I have long dreamed about going to.  But last year, our friends went there and they just raved about it.  Their pictures were gorgeous and we just fell in love with the idea of going.  Fast forward to now and we have just gotten back from our own trip to Komodo National Park.  Our friends were not wrong.  It was amazing!  I'd say maybe it was almost to our benefit that it isn't a place that we have known about forever, because that way most of what we saw was a huge happy surprise.

I'm trying something new, so if you're interested in zooming and panning around on the map, try clicking on the link to open an Interactive Map in a new window.  The map is an attempt to show everywhere we traveled while on the liveaboard.

I should start by saying that getting to the island of Flores, where we began our liveaboard journey, is not a quick thing.  From the time we left our apartment in South Korea to the time we arrived at our hotel in the town of Labuan Bajo, 21 hours had passed.  You have to really want to go there.

Our hotel, Bayview Gardens, was perched high on the hill overlooking the Flores Boat Pier.  We climbed 75 stairs, built right into the hillside, from the front desk up to our family suite.  Sunset was spectacular.

The hotel has an infinity pool next to the open dining area where we enjoyed quite a few meals.

The next morning our liveaboard adventure began!  We booked it through Flores Journey, a locally owned and operated tour company.  I would highly recommend this company to anyone interested in visiting this area of the world.  Read on to see why!
Hans was our guide for the 3 day - 2 night journey.  He picked us up from the hotel, got us fitted for snorkel gear, and off we went to the pier!  We took a small dinghy from the pier to our boat.

That's our boat!

Our boat was named Dunia Baru, which is Indonesian for New World.  Once on board, the kids made themselves right at home.  The boat was just for our family!  We had a crew of 4 men: the cook, the captain, the dinghy driver, and an extra helper for anything that needed doing; plus our guide Hans.  We felt very spoiled the entire time.

Our first stop was Kelor Island.  We scrambled up the vertical slope to see the view from the top.

Getting down the hill was harder than getting up.  Charlie fared the worst, with a slip and a slide he scratched his left leg a little.

Back on the boat, we went to a little spot called Manjarite Beach.  We snorkeled there, off the dock.  We saw a ton of starfish and one blue sea star.  We saw Christmas tree worms, a purple clam, a moorish idol,  damselfish, and clownfish living in anemones too.

After snorkeling, we had lunch on the boat!

hanging out in their bedroom on the boat

We then moved on to Rinca Island and our first sighting of real Komodo Dragons!

Our ranger had a big walking stick with a forked end, to keep the dragons at a distance if they got too curious.  This, of course, never happened because they mostly just laid perfectly still, like an alligator would.
Komodo dragons are carnivorous lizards, the top predator on their islands.  They eat Timor deer, wild boar and water buffalo.  Interestingly enough, they are also cannibalistic and will eat their babies and each other.

Their prey: Timor deer

Here is a video of a juvenile we saw. They smell with their forked tongue, like a snake.

More prey: water buffalo

Not sure if this is lucky, but our guide pointed out a green viper snake in the trees above us!  I circled it for your convenience.

We walked past a mother komodo guarding her nest and then climbed up into the savanna area of the island.

You can see our boat waiting for us down there.

On the way back down, we saw another dragon and then we walked back to where the biggest one was lying under the porch.  He actually moved!  More like readjusted his position, but still.

our beautiful boat waiting for us!

Rinca Island has many mangroves growing around its coastline.  The tide was low, so we saw their cool root structures above the waterline.

Back on the boat, we had a snack of dragonfruit smoothies and fried banana with chocolate sauce and shredded cheese.  Delicious!

We then moved on to Kalong Island to watch the sunset and wait for the flying fox bats to make their nightly appearance.

My camera couldn't always maintain focus on the bats, but you get the idea of how large they are.  Also, I muted the sound on this video, since the wind is about all you could hear anyways.

Hans said that around a thousand bats would fly over our heads.  It definitely lasted around 20 minutes with the sky filled with bats all flying off for their nightly search for food.  They are fruit bats and we estimated their wingspan to be at least 2 feet, but internet searches say it could have been 1 meter.

We stayed out on the top deck of the boat to watch the stars come out after the bats finished their nightly flight.  It was a beautiful night and the temperatures were just perfect.  Unfortunately, since we were in the southern hemisphere, none of the star constellations were familiar to us.  We just didn't know what we were looking at.  Still beautiful though.

The next morning we woke up at 5am to try to catch the sunrise from the top of Three Points on Padar Island.  Maya was less than enthusiastic about getting up so early and even less thrilled to climb the 800 steps to see the sunrise from the top.  She stopped climbing at some point, which is why the pictures are all sans Maya.

This area is famous because the three bays you can see each have a different color sand.  The far left bay has pink sand, the near left bay has black sand, and the right bay has white sand.  All are on the same island.

There is a lot of squinting in these pictures because of the super bright sun shining in our eyes.

finally caught back up with Maya on the way back down

a look back up the stairs we had just come down

Then we moved onto Long Beach on the other side of Padar Island.  It has pink sand!  We had the entire beach all to ourselves.  I felt like Flores Journey really went out of their way to take us somewhere so special.  It was one of those pinch-me kind of moments where you really can't believe you're so lucky to be having this experience.

The kids made abstract art with the seashells.  We weren't allowed to take any shells or sand, since it is a national park, so they would just gather them and make artistic piles.

Eric and I walked down the beach a fairly far distance and we discovered bird tracks, crab tracks, deer tracks, and some kind of track of an animal that leaves a continuous track, like something crawling on its belly.  It led straight into the scrubby brush.  We were told not to go into the scrubby area because there are snakes.  Maybe it was a snake track?

Then it was 'pose with the shells and coral' time.  Such silliness.

This was only the first 36 hours of our journey.  Stay tuned for Part Two to see what happened next!