The Island of Komodo – Rosa’s blog

We woke up painfully early that morning, we had to be on the boat by 6am – the boat that was going to take us on a tour of Komodo and some of the sights on the surrounding islands. It was a small but sturdy thing, comfortably fitting us and the other passengers who were coming on the tour with us.

Without much fuss, the little boat set off, and we were out amongst the archipelago of islands. Despite still being a bit groggy, I was excited for the day ahead, and liked spending time on the water as it was sheltered and very calm. Every so often, we would catch glimpses of turquoise blue washing up on white sand beaches on the islands, and fascinating volcanic rock formations jutting in places out of the sea. At one point, we even saw a whole school of dolphins swimming super close to the boat, their arched backs gleaming in the sunlight as they swam effortlessly by. It was incredible to see.

We soon reached our first destination; a small mountain from the top of which you could see the three different coloured beaches the island was known for – pink, white, and black (but really more grey). It was a gruelling, hot walk, even though it wasn’t even 10.00 by this point, but the view from the top really was amazing, with three crescent shaped moons all pointing out in different directions from the sea, plus (my personal favourite thing from this viewpoint) there was a large rock out at sea that looked exactly like a gigantic tortoise. As we walked back down to get back on our boat, we even saw two large eagles circling not so far above us.

Down we went, and back on the boat. The next destination was Komodo Island itself, home to the closest living thing we have to a dragon. The famed giant deadly lizard: the Komodo Dragon.

When we arrived on Komodo, we came into a gorgeous turquoise bay, and as we walked down the pier, I noticed that through the clear water, you could see coral lining the seabed. I had never seen real coral before, it was incredibly exciting! It had so many colours and was so varied in size and texture – it was beautiful. But we weren’t here to admire the coral; we were here to find dragons.

As the group gathered together and our guide began to lead us through the arid woodland, I got the sinking feeling that we probably wouldn’t end up seeing one of these famous dragons after all. I mean, why would they hang around here where all the people are when they have a whole island to live on?

I needn’t have worried.

Probably the most amazing thing we saw on the island, although I wouldn’t know that until later, was a baby Komodo dragon. About a foot or so long, still close to the largest lizard I had ever seen but not exactly dragon size by any standards, the little one was dark with bright green and reddish scales studded along its sides and down its tail like little jewels. The funny little lizard scampered its way through the dead leaves, clearly not particularly frightened of us but still keeping a healthy distance. We were told by our guide that it was probably about a year old, and would spend most of its time in the trees to escape being eaten by the adult dragons. It soon disappeared amongst the dry shrubs, and we continued on.

The next dragon we saw was definitely fully grown. The magnificent, hefty looking lizard – about the size of a human – was lying, seemingly sleeping unperturbed, with a semicircle of tourists surrounding it – at a safe distance, of course. It lay almost as if it were dead, and if there hadn’t been a throng of tourists already around it, I might have mistaken it for a log. But it was definitely a dragon, and it was definitely aware of its situation. It was unbothered by its audience, but would lazily open its eyes every once in a while to survey us. Deadly claws splayed out at its sides, stomach on the ground, looking like it didn’t have a care in the world, but, our guide told us, they actually hang out by the watering hole (where this dragon was) pretending to be asleep, waiting for an unsuspecting prey animal like a boar to foolishly go to take a drink, and then they would pounce. The perfect clever lazy strategy, if you ask me.

We continued back around on our trail, slowly being deafened by the loudest crickets I’ve ever heard in my life. We had reached the beach again when we saw the next two dragons. Both lying down in the shade, just like the first one we had seen. But these ones were more active, lifting their heads to look around at us. I was amazed by the way their large heads swung round with surprising speed for such big creatures. I even got to see one of them flick its long yellow tongue. They truly are magnificent beasts, and there is no doubt that they’re dragons. Despite their apparent laziness, I knew that they could kill me easily if they decided to. A lizard of that size definitely commands a healthy amount of respect.

After that encounter, we all got back onto the boat, were given lunch, and then we set off again. Our next stop was the pink beach, named because of the colour of the sand when the tide comes in, the fragments of coral in the water giving the illusion of bright pink sand. When we arrived, sadly, the tide was not coming in, so we only saw hints of the pink as the waves lapped at the sand. But we weren’t just here to sit on the beach – we were here to snorkel! So we got on the gear that had been leant to us, and hopped in the surprisingly lukewarm water, for my first experience ever snorkelling. And, wow. Before today I had never even seen coral. Now, I was able to see an entire coral reef as I lazily paddled along the surface of the sea. In amongst the multicoloured, infinitely varied pieces of coral, were every imaginable kind of tropical fish. Bright and numerous, striped and thin, large and deep coloured; the coral reef had them all. Delicate fans of red seaweed housed little jewel-blue fishes, whilst black and yellow striped ray-finned fish nibbled at branches of rocky coral. Great lumps of what looked like brains showed off larger, rainbow-coloured shoals as they swam along. Every time I thought I had seen them all, I saw more. Several times I exclaimed into my snorkel at the incredible diversity of the teeming life just below me. I really felt like I was witnessing something precious.

Before I knew it (and sooner than I had liked) we were back on our boat, and heading to our final destination: Manta Point, where manta rays were often seen. We had been told earlier that sometimes there were turtles in these waters, but I knew how unlikely it would be to actually see one. But, as we sped along, one of the other passengers on our boat saw one. It was gone too quickly for any of us to see it, but I began looking vigilantly in the water to see if I could see another one. And my wish came true. As one of the members of the boat’s crew was stood on the prow, he suddenly pointed into the water and I eagerly followed his finger and saw it: a turtle. An honest-to-god, real life turtle! It was bright, much easier to spot than I had expected, bright green and yellow, and close to the surface of the water. I only saw it for a split second, before we had sped past and it was already gone. I couldn’t believe I’d actually seen it. I saw a turtle! Elated by that sighting, I was excited when we reached our final destination.

It turned out Manta Point was not exactly a place, just a point in the ocean. A throng of snorkelling tourists were in the water, surrounded by little tour boats, and we were told to get on our snorkelling gear and jump in. I was the second person to jump off the boat, and looked at the seabed far below me to see – there! And there! Two giant manta rays, easily at least a meter wide each – gliding elegantly across the sand at the bottom of the sea. The great majestic creatures were followed by a throng of swimming tourists, and I tried to keep up with them but the mantas were just too fast and I soon fell behind, not helped by the surprisingly strong invisible currents in the water. Just as I was starting to feel a little bit tired and panicked, the crew from my boat came to pick me up. Once we had collected everyone back up again, we started our trip back to the port, the swell of clouds coming off the island in the distance promising rain. We were back at the port before we knew it, and sure enough it began to pelt it down as we walked back to our guest house. We were completely drenched and quite exhausted by the time we got there, but overall pleased with the amazing experiences we had had that day. The experiences of those tropical beaches and magnificent animals was something I never really thought I was ever going to experience, but man, am I glad I did.