Komodo--thar be dragons on this island!

Our first stop in Indonesia--Komodo.  Just reading a few paragraphs about Indonesia overwhelmed me with superlatives.  The thought of trying to comprehend this enormous country with all its diversity makes my head hurt, so I'm going to limit the informative part of this post to this one little island we visited today.  The harbor where we anchored provided fabulous vistas and mountain shapes, like those in the picture above.   It reminded me of Bora Bora.  

The island is about 150 sq. miles and has one village of 1,700 people.  The last count of the Komodo dragons a couple of years ago was 1,377, meaning almost one dragon per person.  All the houses in the village are built on stilts to keep one population away from the other.  Our guide told us that most of the incidents of dragon attacks on humans were on children who had forgotten or disregarded their parents' warnings.   I've included the map below for a frame of reference.   Look for the gray dot for Komodo's location.                                                    

This small island is world renowned because of these pre-historic looking reptiles.  They are called dragons because of their size, scaly skin, and long forked tongues, but they are really a monitor lizard.  They can grow to be 10 feet long and weigh 275 pounds.  They also live on two other islands in the area, but the national park is on Komodo.  

After a short tender ride, we walked up the pier to the park headquarters and were sorted into groups of 25 people each.  We were assigned a guide (middle picture) who told us about the flora and fauna we were seeing, a ranger (right picture) who lead the way, and a helper (left picture) who brought up the rear.  The ranger and helper each had forked sticks to keep the dragons at bay.

Once organized into groups, we were given a little orientation--don't wander off on your own, stay behind the ranger, you will walk for 1 1/2 hours.  We'd already been told on board that if we had bleeding of any kind, we should stay on the ship because the dragons can smell blood from two miles away.  At the last minute, they told us we couldn't wear red, the color of blood.  That caused a lot of us, including me, to make a hurried trip back to our staterooms to change.

Within five minutes we came upon this guy lying across the path.  We also saw a smaller dragon walking farther down the path.  Seeing two within the first five minutes of walking helped to keep us motivated for the next hour of hot and sweaty walking.  During our walk, our guide pointed out many interesting aspects of the island and its famous inhabitants.

Mating time is in June and July, then the female lays 15-30 eggs.  She only tends them for three of the 8-9 months of incubation.  Only 10% of the eggs grow to maturity, most of the loss is due to cannibalism by both male and female adults.  The surviving babies live in these palm trees for the first 2-3 years.  When the palm tree is old, it looses all it frawns and just goes to fruit as in this picture.  The fruit provide nourishment for the babies, and when the tree dies and falls to the earth, the fibrous nature of the trunk is soft enough for the babies to burrow into, both for safety and to keep it's body temperature up during the night hours.


We saw orchids growing on the trunks of some other trees.  It's the first time I've seen them growing in the wild.

During our hike, we saw some flat rocks on which some of the dragons may sunbath,  a very large egg mound, and the tracks of the Timor deer, and evidence of the other island denizen--wild boar.

 When we came to the watering hole, we saw enough dragons to satisfy the reason for the trip.  Komodo dragons can live from 60-80 years and continue to grow throughout their lives.  Our guide told us that the danger to humans is from the 60 species of bacteria in their mouths, particularly Listeria.  The victim, whether animal or human, dies in a couple of days due to infection.

In the video, you can see the long, forked tongue which they use to smell.

 

 When we returned to the starting point at the park headquarters, there were dozens of islanders in their stalls, laden with souvenirs--dragon magnets, T-shirts, decorated bowls, and batik fabric.  The ranger took us to where his wife and two sons were manning their booth.  I bought a string of champagne colored pearls from her for 300,000 rupiah (about $25). These are the little boats the villagers used to bring their wares. 

When we got back on the Viking Sun, some of the children came along-side to ask for money.  

We sat on the veranda for a bit enjoying the scenery and took lots of sail-out pictures.   Do you see the dragon in the picture at the top of this post?  I've helped out a little here.

After the flat coastline of Australia, these volcanic islands are beautiful contrast.  

Tomorrow we will dock in Benoa, Bali.