Bush Walking To The Dragons
By Lothar. Filed in Indonesia |
This morning, Mermaid II is at anchor in the bay at Loh Liang, Komodo Island. At 7 AM, our dinghies take us ashore and we follow two young Indonesian park rangers into the bush, searching for the Komodo Dragon. First we come across some big deer and birds, but no big lizards. After about one hour, the trail climbs out of the forest into the dry savannah. In the meantime, the heat of the equatorial sun is beating down on us. We have read the dragon info and learned, that they lie in the morning sun, in order to raise their body temperature and wake up from their night-time low temp and near coma. Now they should be getting ready to hunt for food. We would be easy dragon food, with the heat and sun making us more and more sluggish and them faster and faster!
Once on the open hilltop, we come across our first dragon, warming up in the sun! This monitor lizard, locally called ora, is about 3 meters long. The dragons usually prey on deer, wild pigs and goats. The lizards can open their mouth big enough to swallow a whole goat. Before attacking, they stand on their hind legs and can sprint short distances. They have sharp teeth, long claws and a powerful tail, all useful weapons. Komodos are at the top of the food chain on this island. Now we are standing only 15 feet from a Komodo dragon, with just a guide with a long forked stick between the dragon and his food (us!). We keep our respectful distance and the only shots being fired are pictures. Lucky for us, the dragon is not hungry and slowly lumbers up the hillside.
On our return, we come across 2 more large dragons near the cafeteria of the Visitor Center. Their keen sense of smell guided them here, but we are told that the rangers do not feed them goats any more. The Komodo dragons are living in the wild and have to hunt for their own food. There are an estimated 1500 oras on Komodo and another 1000 on neighboring Rinca Island.
Later in the afternoon, our boat anchors at the southern tip of Rinca. We dive Cannibal Rock and afterwards observe baby dragons and wild pigs on the beach. This is our most southern stop on this dive cruise. We are at 8 Degrees 44’ South, 119 Degrees 25’ East. Here the Sumba Sea is a cool 23 Degree C, and we are looking forward to cruise north, closer to the Equator, to the 28 Degree warm Flores Sea .