INDONESIA - DAY 1 IN KOMODO NATIONAL PARK: LOH BUAYA PARK ON RINCA ISLAND

 July 11, 2023

Komodo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, comprises three major islands--Rinca, Komodo, and Padar--and a number of smaller islands. The park covers about 542,000 acres, or 847 square miles.

Rinca (pronounced REEN-cha) Island, one of the three largest islands but with fewer tourists than Komodo Island, is famous for its Komodo dragons. Just over 70 square miles, the island has a population of about 1,800 people and 1,300 Komodo dragons. I believe that is the biggest population of Komodo dragons on a single island in the park (and therefore in the world as Komodo dragons are endemic to this area). And yes, occasionally someone is killed by one of the dragons. Our guides told us that Komodo dragons are not venomous, but have dozens of fatal bacteria in their bite.  Some scientists insist, however, that there is also venom in the dragon's saliva. A human who is bitten by a Komodo dragon at the very least may lose the limb that was bitten, and may even die. Go here to see Smithsonian magazine's list of the most infamous Komodo dragon attacks on humans. 

After being ferried onshore at Rinca Island by Elfrid in his motorboat . . . 

. . . we were greeted by this very large statue of fighting dragons--something we would have loved to see played out in real life.

Bob was about to live the dream he had as a little boy--to see a Komodo dragon in the wild.

We took a boardwalk to the visitor center. Along the way we saw a bunch of long-tailed macaques.

Two mothers holding babies stop for a chat:

This one is getting a drink from the stream:

Monkeys are always fun, but we had seen a lot of them by this point in our trip. The fun and excitement ramped up significantly when Vincent spotted our first "dragon," as the locals call them, right next to the raised bridge we were walking on. No one else seemed to know it was there, and this was an indication that Vincent was going to be a great guide.

As we continued on the boardwalk, we had to stop at three different stations to listen to rangers giving us rules and information. They are serious about safety, that's for sure. 

The desolate landscape befits the legendary dragon.

We finally came to a small museum. Its walls were covered with biographies of many of the conservationists who have lived and worked on the island. The guy on the right survived a Komodo attack that included two bites.

The map below indicates that Komodo Island is about 50% larger than RInca Island.

My favorite display contains the skeletons of "Jessica" and "Mr. X."  

Jessica was a female dragon who died at about 26-28 years. She was 7.5 feet long and at her peak weighed about 80 pounds. She died from old age and loss of hunting ability.

Mr. X, a male dragon, lived about the same length of time as Jessica. He was 9.5 feet long and weighed over 180 pounds at his peak. Like Jessica, he likely died from old age.

Before we were allowed to go out, we were assigned to a "naturalist guide" with whom we were to stay at all times. He carried a tall forked stick to be used against any aggressive dragons. It was not exactly comforting.

We passed one of the many deer on the island, potential food for the dragons. The park employees must feed them near the museum to attract the dragons for easy viewing by tourists who may not want to venture far from the safety of four solid walls.

Then we saw our first dragon relatively close up (with nothing between us but a man with a stick):

It knew we were there. Look at its tongue flicking in and out, testing the scents in the air:

Vincent was a master photographer, using my phone to capture some incredible photos that make the situation look a lot more dangerous (and us a lot more stupid) than the reality.

That stick our guide is holding looks like good protection, right? RIGHT? And yeah, the prehistoric monster is as big as he is.

I see a definitely similarity between the guide's stick and the dragon's tongue. Which one is more lethal? No contest.

Dragons lie in the sun to digest their food. I wonder what and when this one last ate?

This fella looks like he is striking a pose for us against the beautiful backdrop. It was crazy to see these huge lizards just walking around with humans not far away. I wouldn't say they are tame by any stretch of the imagination, but they weren't much bothered by our presence.

We followed the trail up a hill, stopping by this gruesome display of some of the dragons' victims:

Vincent and the view. It looks cool, but it was H O T  and  M U G G Y!

We climbed to a view point and came upon a hexagonal gazebo. Here it is spread out in a panoramic shot. We asked the naturalist if the dragons ever come onto the gazebo platform. Yes, he had seen them there before.

But no worries, our guide had his weapon ever at the ready.

From our perch we had a good view of the cove where we came in.

There was nothing very menacing in the dry grasses of the hilltop . . . until our guide pointed out a sleeping dragon near the tree. It would have been SO EASY to step on it.

We made our way back down to the shore. There had only been a few visitors when we arrived, but the number of tourists had increased significantly while we were out and about. This dragon was not happy to have been awakened from what must have been a post-dinner catatonia. (Our naturalist guide noted that dragons can consume 80% of their body weight in one feeding.) In any case, she didn't appear to be hungry, and in the end, she just wanted to go back to sleep. 

Altogether we saw six Komodo dragons on Rinca Island, not a bad day's work.

Back on the boat, the cooks had a big batch of hot french fries waiting for us, a nice afternoon snack. 

Our last "venue" of the day was Kalong Island, which was an hour or two away by boat. Kalong Island has two mangrove areas that are home to thousands of flying foxes. These bats, the largest species in the world, can attain a wingspan of five feet and can travel at 13 mph for three hours or more. Like most bats, they are nocturnal and come out just as the sun sets.

Just to give you an idea of what they look like, I borrowed these photos from Britannica:

Anyway, before we watched for bats, we watched a fiery wave of color spread across the sky and water.

On cue, the bats came winging out of the mangrove forest, first just a sprinkling, and then a whole battalion. It was still light enough to see their distinctive silhouettes against the tinted night sky. They were the size of large seagulls and flew noiselessly. If they were using echolocation, we couldn't hear it.

They are a little difficult to see in the photo above, but they are there. You can see a short video of the flying foxes on my YouTube channel here.

Maybe you, like me, will be hearing this music as you watch.

This wasn't the first time we had seen flying foxes. We saw them in 2019 in Sri Lanka's Royal Botanical Gardens. We could stand under the tree branches they were hanging from (if we weren't too worried about guano plopping on our heads), so we had a better view of them.

We had also seen a different species of bat in Austin, where they hang by day under a bridge that crosses Lady Bird Lake. We paid for tickets on a boat that was positioned in the lake so that we could see the bats come out at dusk.

However, there was something special about sitting on the bow of our boat under the fiery sky, far from the other boats and very far from any significant populated spot, and watching the bats soar out of the mangrove forest. It was another one of the National Geographic moments we have been privileged to share from time to time.

Once the bats had either all flown out to feast on fruits growing on the surrounding islands or it had gotten too dark for us to see them, it was time for dinner. We had only consumed, oh, I don't know, maybe 40,000 calories so far that day, so our cooks thought we needed fattening up. The quantity of food was mind-boggling, and honestly, we weren't very hungry.

But there was no way we could disappoint these beautiful sisters.

They sat down for a photo, but not to share our meal. (We wish.)