Steve and Cathy's Blog

There is only one reason to visit here, but it is a great reason: to see Komodo dragons, the largest lizards on earth.  They live in Komodo National Park, a 1,000-square mile park spanning three of the five islands that are the only places on earth where they live.

Our ship anchors out in the harbor around 10:00am.  We are all told to meet in Insignia Lounge at 10:00am, where we will each be assigned a group number.  The Destination Services staff will send us to the tenders (i.e., lifeboats that are used as tenders) based on these group numbers.

We are not sure that there were any alternatives to the way that they organized us, but let’s just say it was not their finest hour.  Naturally, hundreds of guests wanted to go on the one tour available, and the start of the tour was either 10:00am or 12:15pm.  The tenders only hold 100 people at a time.

So we sat around for ninety minutes while groups of 20 were called one at a time.  The couple in chairs behind us fell asleep! We were number 16 of 20, plus there were people going ashore for private tours.  It was slow going.  By the time we got on the tender and made the 15-minute trip to the long pier at the entrance to the national park, it was nearly noon.

But when we arrive, all the rest of the details fall into place.   Everyone in Group 16 meets in one place, and we are divided into halves. That leaves us in a mini-group of around twenty, and we meet our young guide Ferdy (in the left hand photo below) and two equally young park rangers, one of whose name was Stefan and the other one whose picture I got (below right) but no name.  All three of them speak English and are carrying long wooden poles that are forked at one end.

We wait our turn outside the pavilion where rules of the park are to be given to us.  Oceania has already distributed a letter to every guest concerning the visit to Komodo Island, a copy of which is below, but we will now hear from the park staff as well.

Ferdy welcomes us to the park and gives us these rules:  1) do not wear any item of red-colored clothing as the dragons look at anything of this color as blood and will see it as a potential food source (Although some of the guides do have red items.  Go figure); 2) stay with the group – no one is permitted to tour the park unescorted; 3) stay on the paths through the park; 4) stick close to your guide as they are your only means of protection; 5) under no circumstances should you attempt to feed these animals; and 6) do exactly as the guides direct you at all times.

Off we go into the woods. It is a hot day, but there is a nice breeze blowing so it is comfortable.  We are walking through forest on very well-defined and maintained trails that are about six feet wide and lined with stones.  There is no reason to not know where it is.  Our guide points out various types of trees and other flora.

One is a kind of palm tree that lives only about forty years.  When it dies, the top of the tree is left and provides protection for baby komodo dragons.  He shows us some orchids that are growing in other types of trees, as well as a couple of kinds of fruit trees.

We have gone about twenty minutes into the woods when we come upon our first evidence of the komodo dragons, a huge nest with a female walking away from it.  We can’t get any pictures of her, but we then spot another one on the trail ahead of us.  He is about fifty feet away, but we are able to see him through the trees and brush.

There is another group stopped ahead of us.  We catch up to them.  We are all surrounding a watering hole, and we hit the jackpot.  There are another nine komodo dragons there, all hanging around sunning themselves.  We all stand around twenty or thirty feet away, watch enthralled and snapping photos like crazy.

At first, there isn’t much movement, but then a couple of them get in a bit of a territorial argument, and another one starts toward us from about fifty feet away.  He has no particular interest in us, but it is really thrilling to watch him walk, with his white forked tongue shooting out of his mouth (their tongue is where their sense of smell is located).   He is guided away by one of the park rangers (with those forked wooden poles) and we are moved along to make room for other groups now entering the area.

By now, we have seen a total of thirteen specimens, including one growing baby. We move away from the watering hole and meet in a group so that Ferdy can tell us more about these creatures. I am stealing a Wikipedia quote that gives much of the same information: “As a result of their size, these lizards dominate the ecosystems in which they live. Komodo dragons hunt and ambush prey including invertebrates, birds, and mammals. It has been claimed that they have a venomous bite; there are two glands in the lower jaw which secrete several toxic proteins. The biological significance of these proteins is disputed, but the glands have been shown to secrete an anticoagulant. Komodo dragons’ group behavior in hunting is exceptional in the reptile world. The diet of big Komodo dragons mainly consists of Timor deer, though they also eat considerable amounts of carrion. Komodo dragons also occasionally attack humans.

“Mating begins between May and August, and the eggs are laid in September. About 20 eggs are deposited in abandoned megapode nests or in a self-dug nesting hole.  [which was the first evidence we saw of the dragons] The eggs are incubated for seven to eight months, hatching in April, when insects are most plentiful. Young Komodo dragons are vulnerable and therefore dwell in trees [the trunks of dead palm trees that Ferdy pointed out to us], safe from predators and cannibalistic adults [yes, they eat their young]. They take 8 to 9 years to mature, and are estimated to live up to 30 years.”

And here is more information that our guide gives us, which is also in this Wikipedia quote: “Komodo dragons are carnivores. Although they have been considered as eating mostly carrion, they will frequently ambush live prey with a stealthy approach. When suitable prey arrives near a dragon’s ambush site, it will suddenly charge at the animal at high speeds and go for the underside or the throat.  Komodo dragons make no attempt to deliberately allow the prey to escape with fatal injuries, but try to kill prey outright using a combination of lacerating damage and blood loss. They have been recorded as killing wild pigs within seconds, and observations of Komodo dragons tracking prey for long distances are likely misinterpreted cases of prey escaping an attack before succumbing to infection.  Komodo dragons have been observed knocking down large pigs and deer with their strong tails. It is able to locate carcasses using its keen sense of smell, which can locate a dead or dying animal from a range of up to 9.5 km (5.9 mi).”

Ferdy does tell us that the “watering hole” is not natural, but was dug by a group of park rangers in hopes of attracting komodo dragons for us tourists to watch.  Well, it certainly worked.  Seeing over a dozen of these 150-200-pound lizards close up was really interesting. Steve was thrilled; Cathy was a bit spooked out.  Here is her take on the subject:

[Welcome to Jurassic Park! The walk through the jungle was spooky, real hot, and silent, then creepy bird calls, and you are looking all around expecting a giant lizard to jump out at you, and the guide is talking about effing orchids for god’s sake…and then…this HUGE nest and this gigundo mother lizard strolling away… OMG they were SO CREEPY!!! And BIG! At the watering hole there are like a hundred of them and a couple of them got into a bit of a fight, hissing and scratching. I heard a hiss behind me, turned and punched who I thought was Steve; “Knock it off!” … It was the guide, laughing at me. But I am glad I went.  I mean, you have to, right? ]

The national park was established in 1980 to protect these vulnerable animals.  There are 1,300 of them in this park, and it is estimated that only 3,200 of them overall in the five islands where they are found.  They are healthy and the population in the park is stable as their food sources are plentiful.

We continue walking through the forest for another fifteen minutes and return to the entrance of the park.  Of course there are souvenir stands; several of them, as well as a place to buy food and beverages.  We make our purchases (with some bargaining!), and start heading back to the pier.  On the way, a little boy who cannot be more than four is selling postcards, and we stop to buy one.  It’s kind of beat up, but Cathy is undeterred, as she says that such initiative must be rewarded.

We continue on, with Steve snapping some more photos of the people we see (as in the picture below on the left) and the ship.  Finally we walk out on to the long pier.  We get in line to take the tender back to the ship with many others.  In about fifteen minutes, one pulls up, and it is full of Insignia crew members!  We are very pleased to see that staff members are getting a chance to visit this place.

Back on the ship, we have a late lunch and partake in our daily ritual – a nap.  Around 4:00pm, right on schedule, our ship weighs anchor and sets sail for Darwin, Australia, which is 707 nautical miles away.

Komodo Island is a place we have been looking forward to seeing for a long time.  We are told that there are a few komodo dragons in captivity (one in the Washington National Zoo), but there is nothing quite like going to the place where they live in the wild and seeing them in their native habitat.  And we applaud Oceania Cruise Line for making this a stop on the cruise.  A special stop on our around-the-world adventure.