Komodo, Indonesia - Feb 23, 2013

Wow, here we are on Komodo Island, always heard about this place and seen many pictures but have never visited until now. Is it all that’s it cracked up to be? Well the short answer is yes, the Dragons are amazing and seeing them in their own environment is an incredible opportunity. But a little aside from these famous residents (the Dragons), we have learnt that the inhabitants of this island are mostly descendants of former convicts, exiled to this island and who have mixed with the indigenous Bugis from Sulawasi. This population is primarily Muslim, but Christianity and Hinduism are also practiced. Komodo is one of the 17,508 islands that make up the Republic of Indonesia, it is part of the Lesser Sunda chain of islands and forms part of the Komodo National Park. The Komodo dragon, a type of monitor lizard, is the world’s largest and roams the island freely. It also makes it home on some of the smaller surrounding islands. These lizards grow to an average of between 6 and nearly 10 feet long and weigh an average of 300 lbs. Motion lizards are so named because of ancient civilizations used them as alerts for the presence of crocodiles. These animals are amazing to watch as we could easily see that they could pick up speed very quickly if provoked. We are required to be on an organized tour to be able to visit the island, once on the island we are organized in groups with a guide and two Park Rangers. The Park Rangers carry special forked sticks to help keep the dragons at bay as we walk through the park. Did we ever feel threatened, no not really except one time as we were coming back to the tender dock one of the dragons became active and as I was trying to pull out my video camera I was quickly herded behind a barricade. I did not get the video shot as the dragon was heading in my direction and as mentioned I was told and ordered by the ranger to move. So no time but I did get some great footage of the day spent here. Here are some of our pictures.