Komodo

There is a dragon in this picture. See him? He’s right out front! Still don’t? That’s pretty much the story of our visit to Komodo National Park. Well, partly.

Komodo is about an hour boat ride from Flores. When we arrived, there weren’t any other boats on the dock, though a fisherman had his catch skinned and drying on the end.

Komodo Island – the whole thing – is a national park. The only people allowed to stay there over night are the people who live there. For the most part, they are descendants of three or more generations. That and/or park rangers.

I would love to have visited with a family living on Komodo. There is only one town, and it’s off limits to those who don’t live there. The travel company we were with has an almost magic way of getting us into places, but this was most emphatically beyond them with no room for discussion.

Each group that sets off on the dirt trails through the park must be accompanied by at least one, or even two site guides. These guides come specially equipped with long, forked poles.

That is our entire defense against one of the most deadly predators around. No fences. No cars. No walls. And the nearest hospital to combat the billions of nasty bacteria in a dragon’s mouth is back in Bali – too far to do much good.

I say that, but we never felt particularly endangered. Our guide picked one of the longer routes for us, with a bit of grunting and shrugging on our part. When we first set off we had the thrill of spotting a couple of two-year-olds wandering around.

Most of the time Komodo dragons of less than two years old will live up in the trees and refuse to come down lest their parents eat them.

For the next hour or so we hiked the medium loop on the map. this took us past a variety of natural fauna and flora. We weren’t particularly quiet as we stopped every little way to point at birds or poke at seed pods.

The filaments in this seed pod are used for things like pillows. It’s considered the equivalent of goose down or cotton.

No dragons.

At one point we came to a huge spider web complete with a fist sized spider that we were assured had one of the most deadly poisons in the world. A bunch of people with cell phones then proceeded to get well within a foot of the thing to take a picture.

I used my telephoto, such as it is, but couldn’t get a single clear shot. Sorry. No deadly spider big enough to eat a person pictures for you today.

We went steadily up hill for the first half. It was hot work under a bright sun after we got past the artificial pond that the rangers provide for the deer, which are the dragon’s main food. The view was wonderful.

But no dragons.

We made our way back down to the shore. What a thrill to see another dragon! It was still just a little one, but at least it was one. Then they took us a few yards from where we had arrived.

Wouldn’t you know, that’s where the big ones were the whole time. What’s more, it was clear that everyone but us tourists knew full well that they like to hang out by the shore on hot sunny days like this.

Sometimes I got the feeling out tour guide liked to give us a runaround just to make sure we didn’t get through the program too quickly and then demand other entertainments.

Turns out Komodo dragons of the full size verity are kind of dull. They don’t have to hunt very often. The rest of the time they prefer to conserve their energy. Like great big lizards.

One of them had taken a bite out of a deer a few days before. Apparently all the adults were just hanging around waiting for the deer to die. It sat awfully close to the path on the way to the market area and made no move as we passed within feet. Two of the effects of a Komodo dragon bite is hallucinations and lethargy. The poor deer must have thought we belonged in her herd.

As to the market, they are no fools. They built their stalls at exactly the right height to stay out of a dragon’s reach. If you think this is odd, you should see the bathrooms.

As to that picture at the very beginning of this post, the dragon is about a quarter of the way toward the middle from the left and half way down, right under the shade of the tree. There’s a dark tail sticking down and a lighter body in the shade. I bet even knowing that you still couldn’t find it.