Dragons

We left all the planned festivities behind in Labuan Bajo to seek out Komodo Dragons on the southern end of Rindja Island just to the west. It was only a 25nm trip but we had to time it for the tides as the currents can rush through the narrow channels at as much as eight knots, not something we could even consider fighting against if we got it wrong. 

We got it right, thank goodness, which gave us some good currents to help us through but, my, in a couple of places where it was very narrow, we were thrown around in whirlpools and eddies and really had to keep our wits about us. One particularly narrow section saw us zipping through at over 12 knots but we still had to gun the engine in order to keep any semblance of steerage. We won't be returning that same route!

The anchorage was beautiful with dramatic hills surrounding it and had a couple of mooring buoys for the dive boats.  We were lucky enough to find a free one upon our arrival right off the beach where we'd heard the dragons visit and, sure enough, there they were.

We needed to get closer but there's always something goes wrong and, this time it was the fuel connector to our outboard which broke. We then mounted our little 3.3hp Johnson which is also ailing badly but managed to get it going sufficiently to pootle around to have a better look. There were four of them and they came closer to investigate which made us think that they sometimes get fed from visiting boats and they were hoping the same would hold true on this occasion. Sorry guys.

Three of them were quite large (2,5 to 3 metres) and one relatively small, all with those amazing split tongues and scaly bodies. Apparently their bites are poisonous so in order to kill something, say a buffalo, they simply work together, surround it, give it one or two bites and then wait. That wait can last a few weeks but they keep an eye on it until it finally stumbles and falls. We've heard that several of the rangers from the station on the northern end of the island have been bitten recently and have had to be flown out to Bali for treatment otherwise it would be deadly.  We also saw one buck and a few very small monkeys.

On the mooring buoy in the adjacent bay lay Jackster, another cruising couple we know and they suggested a dive so we jumped at the opportunity. We'd managed to get our cylinders filled in Labuan Bajo and this is, purportedly, an excellent dive spot. However, by the time we'd given them cover support for their dive, it was too late in the day for ours.

When we woke the following morning in the hopes of doing a dive, it was raining, dark and miserable (the first rain we've experienced in Indonesia). Now I know that wet is wet so it shouldn't matter if it's raining when you're down under but.... well, it just isn't so nice, the colours aren't so good if it's dreary on the surface and enthusiasm runs a bit short in those circumstances. Pathetic I know.

Instead, we decided to move on up to another island and, as the day progressed the weather improved.  We thought we'd try for a dive there but that too proved unsuccessful. We couldn't find the spot where we thought we'd seen boats drop their divers and it wasn't good enough to waste a tank of air. Fifteen minutes later, we surfaced and went for a snorkel as an alternative.

 

Compensation came in the form of a local boat which passed by with a few lobsters. We bargained a little and came away with five for a good price. Yum. No complaints on that score.

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