Komodo Islands

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In Labuang Bajo on Flores Island I boarded a small boat for a two-day tour around the islands of the Komodo National Park. Komodo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The boat was very comfortable, the crew was friendly, and the cook was great. I was the only passenger on this private trip, which made it very relaxing and comfortable.

We started out by visiting Manta Point to see whether the mantas are around, they were not. We continued on to Pulau Karangan for some snorkeling, and then to "Pink Beach" for more snorkeling. The Pink Beach is really pink. It is caused by debris from red corrals that are ground up into sand.

From Pink Beach we continued to Kalong Island to see the flying foxes. Unfortunately, they too were not around, too much disturbance by cruise boats. We continued on to Komodo Island where we anchored overnight.

The next morning I did a two-hour walking tour of Komodo Island to see the dragons. We then continued on to Rinca Island for another two-hour walking tour to see dragons. It was a great experience.

Unfortunately, my camera didn't work anymore, I just had a small point-and-shoot camera. Because of that I didn't get many good bird pictures in the Komodo Islands. But I did get to see the Komodo Dragons (Varanus komodoensis, german: Komodowaran, french: Dragon de Komodo), which was fascinating. They are BIG. The biggest one that I saw was about 2.5 m (8.2 ft) long, and weighed probably over 50 kg (110 lb). See the Komodo Dragon entry in Wikipedia.

It is difficult to find accurate numbers of the dragons. According to my guide, there are about 3,000 Komodo Dragons on the islands. They live on four islands, Komodo, Rinca, Gili Motang, and Nusa Kode. Komodo and Rinca islands each have about 1,250 dragons, Gili Motang, and Nusa Kode each have about 250 dragons.

After the visit to Rinca Island we returned to Flores Island for a night in Labuan Bajo. The next morning I visited the Batu Cermin cave, seeing cave crickets, cave spiders, and bats. In the afternoon I returned back to the USA via Bali.

All pictures are © Dr. Günther Eichhorn, unless otherwise noted.