Komodo Trip--Day 2

early morning on day two in the boat. the sun rise was lovely. 

 the moon was still out.

 as always in indonesia, the sun was up early. these shots are taken a little before 6am.

 we headed off to the main komodo national park entrance on rinca island.

 some other folks were headed there too.

 our boat docked. we were surprised to see there were crocodiles in the water here.

 we got teamed up with a naturalist guide (a ranger), and he led us into the entrance of the park.

 we saw some deer upon entering the park.

 we visited the park in the dry season. earlier in the year is the wet season, and the island is a lot greener then (but also wet and muddy).

 we checked in at the green building. we paid some fees, entered our names in the log book, and got assigned a second naturalist guide. our group was big enough that we needed two guides.

 a map of the park.

 the guides use as their only defense from the komodos, the forked sticks seen here. of course, they also use their heads to protect themselves and the visitors to the park. but the only "weapon" type instrument is the forked stick!

 i like the log book (you can see where visitors come from) and the man's bracelet.

 skulls of animals that komodo dragons have killed.

 we spent awhile trying to figure out the best hike to go on. i wanted to know which hike would give us the best chance of seeing komodo dragons. in response, the guide kept saying that it was mating season and that there was no guarantee of seeing any komodo dragons. we went back and forth for probably 5-10 minutes like this until another guide stepped in and recommended the medium-length hike. 

 we started off on our 5km hike.

 we saw more deer and monkeys.

 we even saw a guinea fowl.

 the scenery reminded me of utah and, at times, jurassic park (i think that came to mind since the komodo seems kind-of dinosaur like). 

 we started up into the sunny part of the hike, and b and i worried we wouldn't see any komodo dragons. everyone was very quick to tell us that since it was mating season, the dragons like to hide. so we didn't have a good chance of seeing any. how sad would it be to come all the way here and then not see even one?!

 

 but we dutifully followed our guides, following the rules of not running or being loud.

 then, our guide spotted one!

 she was sunning herself in the grass.

 she wasn't really big. but she was a komodo dragon, an ora! we were so excited.

 and she was so still. i don't think she really moved the whole time we looked at her.

 the guides positioned w and s behind her so we could get a picture.

 wa! what pictures.

 s wanted to get away a bit faster from the komodo than william did.

 then we all got in on the action.

 we got a few more pictures for good measure.

 and then some more. 

 brian and i now felt very relieved. sigh...we didn't have to worry if we'd see a komodo. that took a lot of pressure off.

 a water buffalo's poop.

 gorgeous scenery. i love the contrast of the blue, blue water and the hot hilly island.

 ah, so relieved to have seen one ora!

 finally, we made it back into the shade. we were all happy about that.

 a water hole that animals like to drink at (although we didn't see any at it).

 a big tree.

 a reminder to stay on the trails. 

 it's hard to see what that is hanging from the tree...

 ...until b zoomed in on it. it was a big bee's nest!

 we saw more monkeys.

 and we saw some parasitic trees.

 our guide told us that this part of the trail was roped off because a few years ago, during the mating season, a guide and some visitors had gone up there and gotten attacked by a komodo dragon. the guide got badly injured on his leg. scary. we certainly had no interest in going up there.

 our guides pointed out that the holes in the ground were dug by komodos to lay their eggs in them. female komodo dragons will dig a hole and then bury their eggs in it. she'll then cover the hole with some dirt. to throw off other komodos, though, she'll dig decoy holes. komodo dragons will eat each other--so it's a very precarious life for little ones. for the first year or two of their lives, they'll actually live in trees to stay away from larger dragons.

 then in a clearing, the jackpot! we spotted two big komodo dragons on top of each other. 

 at first we thought they were mating, but our guides told us it was two males fighting!

 oh how my heart was pounding watching them. they were so big. the bigger of the two being at least eight feet in length.

 we stared at them, excited and nervous. 

 the female they were fighting for, was just a little way off in the bushes.

 they all seem to be staring at each other. 

 the bigger of the two males won and chased off the loser.

 komodos can run quickly--faster than a human.

 watching them scurry off made my heart pound too.

 as the two males when off, the female decided to leave and started walking off.

 perhaps she didn't like the winner.

  once the smaller one had left, though, the winner came back to find the female.

 but, the only thing he was greeted with was us. 

 which he did not like.

 he charged a bit towards us! s yelled and started to run, but (thankfully) quickly stopped. and the guides were very quick to put their sticks down and ward the dragon off.

 he stalked off.

 but looked back at us. 

 oh brother was it a scary and exciting experience!

 eventually, he walked off.

 and we were all ok. again, a huge sense of relief with regard to the dragons.

 some seeds on the ground.

 when we made it back to the camp/headquarters, we saw another komodo outside the dapur (kitchen).

 there were some tourists taking pictures of it.

 then we decided to take pictures with it (notice the guide, though, with his stick out towards it).

 we said farewell to our great guides and headed back to our boat.

 on the way, we saw some komodo poop.

 and we had a few photo ops.

 but on the sunny stretch, we saw another komodo!

 this one was small, but it still counted. this was our sixth komodo!

 we got back to our boat. 

 although we didn't get to see any crocs.

 we headed out into the open water again to pulau komodo (the bigger of the two main islands in the park).

 the engine of our boat. this room was in between the two bedrooms. during our trip, i was always a little worried that i might accidentally step into this room thinking i was going into my bedroom.

 it was a clean machine. our boat was all very clean. 

 some nice water birds.

 brian called this one a picture of the tetons. although the sierras might be better. it does look very saw like.

 the kids and cathy relaxed and played around.

 we ate lunch along the way.

 i love seeing how clean and organized the kitchen was. 

 our clothes drying with the merah putih.

 finally, we arrived at pulau komodo. it was funny how we were the only ones there. as you can see, the walk from the moored boat to the island was long, and there weren't any other boats or people.

 but, we did see our eighth dragon! it was hanging out on the shore. (our seventh dragon was on rinca just before we got to our boat. it ran across the trail too quickly for us to get a picture.)

 again, it was pretty small. but that was fine.

 a nice shot with the komodo and a deer.

 our official entrance into the park on komodo island.

 this, sadly, is our only shot of the oleh-oleh building where we bought most of our pearl necklaces and a few other pieces before we left the island.

 again, we chose the 5k hike.

 we liked the roof of the ranger building.

 a wild boar.

 stick helpers (or guide sticks).

 more wild boars.

 we started our hike in the shade with our two guides.

 these guides were a bit less chatty.

 we found a dead deer. it had been bitten by a cobra and died. some of the local villagers were in the process of cutting it up.

 but we also saw more living deer (and, thankfully, no cobras). although, really it would be neat to see a cobra as long as it didn't surprise us or hurt us.

 the scenery looked like pulau rinca.

 we got into the sunny part of the trail, which was also the uphill part of the trail.

 the scenery looked a lot like utah.

 again, the beautiful ocean.

 this guide was only about eighteen and was from the village on komodo island. he said he walked to work every day and was saving up to go to college.

 a great shot of cathy.

 we saw some beautiful wild orchids. there are many varieties on the island. 

 we were reminded, though, that orchids are parasitic plants though. interesting how something so beautiful can be so bad.

 we saw some imperial green doves.

 we made it into the homestretch on our hike. we didn't see any komodos though.

 at least we could see the ocean and were in the shade though.

 this picture didn't count as a komodo--although i did like how part of its head was drooping.

 but then we saw one! number nine.

a small one, but one nonetheless.

so we actually saw ten komodos. we missed taking pictures of two of them. i don't remember now when we saw the tenth one. b and i think it was on pulau rinca somewhere.