In the Land of Dragons

We've read our share of stories to the boys of knights and fire-breathing dragons. Monstrous dragons with powerful wings and the ability to destroy kingdoms. Today, the closest we can get to those imaginary creatures is the komodo dragon. They can't fly or spit fire, but they are incredibly mysterious and deadly predators. They are the world's largest lizard and only found in Indonesia! 
Once we determined Indonesia was on our itinerary, we knew we had to see these powerful creatures. We hopped a propeller plane to the port of Luhabanjo on the Island of Flores- the jumping off point for exploring Komodo National Park and the only home of the Komodo dragon.

We hired a speed boat and crew to spend a long, but incredible day on the water. First stop, Padar Island. We had a hot (even at 8am) 40 minute hike with incredible vistas that made it all worth it.

From the top, you can see three different colored beaches- white, black and pink sand.  Stunning!

Our sweet tour guides were 19 year old “Elvis” and Lazarus. Burke was the apple of their eye and they happily carried him COMPLETELY up and down the mountain.

We boated to the pink sand beach and found it completely to ourselves. The pink sand come from red coral in the surrounding waters. The red corral died off a long time ago and the pink sand is the only evidence left. 

We had an fantastic time snorkeling in the surrounding coral reefs. Caeden enjoyed snorkeling for the first time and getting a glimpse of the prolific sea life lurking below. Of course this was the one day we forgot our underwater go pro!

The afternoon we docked at Komodo Island and met our nature guide who led us on a 30 minute hike around the island. There were much longer walks but the kids were already starting to melt in the heat. He took us to where some Komodos were resting. All the guides carry long, pronged forks in case the dragons (or the tourists!) get a little too close. There are over 2,000 Komodo dragons on this island and they are wild. Sadly, they had a death last year when a tourist from Singapore wandered off on his own and was attacked and subsequently died. We were quite happy to stay on the trail!

It was thrilling to see these dangerous animals. They may look placid but the ones we saw were about 9 feet long and weighing about 300 lbs. They look like modern day dinosaurs. They only need to eat 12x a year and will eat anything, - pigs, deer, even water buffalo. Scientists still aren't sure what kills their pray- is it the 23 different types of saliva found in its mouth or are they actually venomous?

The boys have long been fascinated by these immense creatures and were  especially enthralled with how tough baby Komodo dragons are. Once the mother lays the eggs, they are on their own. When they hatch the immediately spend the first 4 months in the trees. Otherwise their parents will eat them! 

Ahh!! They're going to get us!

Saying goodbye to these majestic creatures we boated to another beach for some more snorkeling, but there was just too much trash floating around the shores to enjoy it. It’s so sad what's happening to our oceans and because of the ocean current patterns and population/tourism boom it's huge problem throughout Indonesia.

It rained most evenings but caught one beautiful sunset.

Besides Komodo, there was not much to Luhanbajo. There is supposed to be great diving in the surrounding waters so that is their main draw.Our hotel was fine- we had a loft apartment but no pool so we convinced a nearby resort to grant us a day pass to enjoy their infinity pool.

 At the airport we had our first travel surprise- we were headed from Luhanbajo to Jakarta (in the island of Java) and then Jakarta to Manado (in North Suleswesi). The second leg of the flight was cancelled with no explanation given. We were able to make it to Jakarta and the airline eventually put us up in a hotel for the night. It all worked out fine, though it was a very long travel day with all the waiting time in the airport. It was a great lesson for all of us that being flexible is part of traveling. “An adventure never feels like one when you are on it!”

Just hanging out at the airport