Lowes Travels

World Wonders Cruise Diary – Day 58 – Komodo, Indonesia

Cruise day 58 – Mar 2

After another day at sea we were thrilled to get a first glimpse of the beautiful green mountainous islands of Indonesia.  It’s exciting to enter a country that you’ve only seen in magazines or brochures previously, and so it was as our ship set anchor in the shallow bay facing Komodo Island.  Not much civilization except for a long pier leading to a few primitive structures on the beach, but it looked just fine to us!

Downtown Komodo!

Captain, I’m sensing a primitive life form…

The Coronavirus scare has gotten to the point that we were ordered by local authorities to have our body temperatures checked and wear masks during the 4-hour stop.  I suppose this was intended to protect the residents and dragons we were going to visit, but the masks weren’t very comfortable considering the heat and humidity that day.

There were only two excursions offered, with most folks choosing to visit Komodo National Park to see the Komodo Dragon Lizards.

One hot Komodo babe!

After being tendered to the island, we ended up getting in a good 2.5 mile hike and seeing several Komodo Dragons that were much larger than the ones we’d seen before in the Philippines.

We learned that several people have been killed and eaten by these nasty critters, mostly females protecting their young (like bears in the states), and we were instructed to stay with the group and not stray from the trail.  We were happy to oblige!

Okay, let’s take this other trail over here…
They’re the worlds largest lizards
When hungry enough, the males will eat the babies
Komodos aren’t camera shy.  Well, actually they just don’t move around much
I want one of these to guard my house!

In addition to our naturalist/tour guide, we were led by two handlers with 8′ forked sticks to protect us if necessary
Where’s that small lady, is she missing? Oh, she’s taking our picture 🙂
Females lay 15-20 eggs in a self-dug nest.  You don’t want to go over there!
Young Komodos live in trees like this to avoid predators and cannibalistic adults
An overheated masked hiker
Why do you suppose they lay on the open beach instead of in the jungle?
After that hot humid trek the ship never looked better

This was a short stop of only a few hours, but we enjoyed the tour and exposure to the friendly people (and unfriendly lizards) of the island.

Fortunately, we had plenty of time in the evening to dine with our world traveler friends Andy and Judi:

They have their own dedicated table at the restaurant!

The evening sky gave us a spectacular show as we sailed back to the Java Sea:

 

 

9 comments

  4. Thanks for sharing another amazing day with us. I think I would have been really nervous getting that close to the Komodos. I’m glad you were able to get some photos.

  6. Great view while you eat dinner. I am really enjoying your cruise blog. You are going to places that I will probably never go to and it’s so great to see other parts of the world through your lens. Thanks for sharing.

  7. Those velvety green mountains look so appealing! But hot and humid temps, not so much. Especially with having to wear masks. 😦 I think I’d be hanging toward the back of the crowd when it came to seeing those Komodo dragons.

  8. They sure our ugly … aside from being dangerous. We took the long tour as well and saw quite a few of the creatures and the nest. Our stay was longer though and we had time to go snorkeling at a pink sand beach nearby. The water felt good as we too had a hot and humid day for our visit … must be the norm there weatherwise 😅.

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