At the end of our incredible trip, we took a 3 days 2 nights boat at the Komodo National Park. After some research at home we had chosen the open trip with "Long Lasting trip" company because they offered the most accurate plan to what we had in mind.
It included a big tour: on the first day visit the Kelor island and do some snorkelling, after lunch, go to Rinca and look for the Komodo dragons and finally go to see the flying foxes at sunset time. At the second day take a trip to see the sunrise at Padar island, relax and do snorkelling at Pink beach, after lunch, go to Taka Makasar island, and search for the manta doing snorkelling at manta point and finally go to Siaba island and search for the turtles. The third day see the sunrise at Gili Lawa island and to a trecking, do some snorkelling at Kanawa island, and end the trip going back to the harbour after lunch.
We woke up in the morning with our adventure feeling rising again. The unknown was expecting us. The company came to our hotel to take us to the harbour, and then we got to the ship with a small boat.
The first impression was not really good, the pictures of the webpage were not exactly as the real boat and we had to sleep at a basement cabin. Moreover, according to the weather, we may not go to Padar island and because of a huge fire, we couldn't go to Gili Lawa Island. Even though the first angry feeling, the crew and our guide were really nice and made us enjoy the trip.
Kelor island
Kelor Island was our first stop. It is not so far from Labuan Bajo harbour and apparently it is the usual first stop for all the trips. The island, that is quite small, has a hill just in the middle. The views from the top are really nice.
While climbing the hill, some Indonesian journalists that were making a report for the TV, interviewed me about our experience doing a boat trip at Komodo National Park. I might have appeared at some Indonesian TV!
After the walk, we had free time to lay on the beach or have some snorkelling. Obviously, if you are in the Komodo National park you should go for the second one. The reef is totally amazing.
At the pictures we can see: titan triggerfish, hamug dascyllus, lemon damsel, blue damsel, sakono's damsel, spin chromis variation, spotgill cardinalfish, spinecheek anemonfish, map puffer, clown anemonfish, bengal sergeant, ribbon eal and at the video some false clown anemonfish.
After enjoying our time at Kelor island we came back to the boat where the crew offered a delicious lunch. While resting and having a nap, the boat turned on the engine and we headed to Rinca island to see the Komodo Dragons!
Rinca island
While we were heading to the island, our guide told us some safety instructions. It has happened some time that a tourist has been bitten by a dragon and their bites have an amount of bacterias that can cause a serious infection. Don't get separated from the group, if a dragon follows you, run in zig-zag and don't worry at the entrance we will pay for a ranger who will protect us with a wood stick! From the small boat, we claimed "the ones who are going to die say hi".
Rinca island is smaller than Komodo island. Our guide told us that thanks to this, our chances to see the dragons where higher. Apparently, in this area, there are more male than female dragons, just the opposite of Komodo island.
We didn't have to wait so much to see the first dragon. He was just beside the stone path before even getting to the entrance house. He didn't move any muscle while we passed, as if he were camouflaging. Our guide told us that he might be there waiting for some buffalo that always come in that direction.
At the entrance house, we paid the Komodo National park entrance fee of 250.000 rp per person and hired our ranger. There are different trekkings around the island to see the dragons, we took the small one. However it was not so necessary, all the dragons we found where just at the other side of the entrance.
The guide told us that after eating they rest a lot of time and they go to some places where the smell of food. I found this fack quite strange so I asked if they give something to the dragons to keep them where they want, but they said no.
The trekking was nice but we found no dragon at all. Anyway, the views were very cool and we saw some deer and buffalo eating there.
After savour our time at Rinca island we came back to the boat had a small snack and went straight to the point where the flying foxes live.
Flying foxes area
As we had already seen in Riung (to know more about it click at Boat trip Riung), the bats sleep head down at the top of the mangrove trees and they are called flying foxes. Every day, at the beginning of the sunset, the flying foxes start their flight in order to find for food.
We arrived at the area a bit earlier so we relaxed a little bit at the ship. Our boat had a nice roof with a big sunshade and 2 great hammocks. As we were 10 people we had to share them with the rule "the first one who arrives, keeps it".
At tea time, punctual as an English man, the flying foxes started their flight. It was incredible to see how many bats were there.
While we were enjoying all the flying foxes passing through our heads the sunset had already started and the crew had been preparing our dinner. We stayed up until late reading and watching the full moon.
Padar island
Around 4am the ship turned on the engine again and headed to Padar island while we were sleeping. For our surprise, the weather was good enough to go. We got to the island just in time to see the sunrise.
The island was quite crowded at that time, all the people wanted to see the sunrise at the top. We got there a bit late to do it, but we saw the sunset at the bottom of the island and then we started the trekking.
Most of the tourists don't arrive at the top of the hill and they remain in the middle, just at the place to take the pictures. However, if you get to the top there are other nice views to the other side of the island. Be prepared and bring some cold water!
As we were going down, the vast majority of the people had already left so we had time to take pictures at the best spots of the island. Back at the boat, we could devour the waited breakfast after a short rest the captain starts up again and we went straight to the pink beach.
Pink beach
The pink beach is located at a Rinca island part which is close to Padar island. From the ship we couldn't see the pink sand and we thought it might have changed. However, as we were getting closer with the small boat we could appreciate the beautiful colours!
The beach is incredibly beautiful, the contrast between the blues and the pink are amazing. However, it is usually crowded as so many tourists come here to take nice pictures. Of course not so crowded as in Barcelona! We sunbathe a little bit and then, as always, we did some snorkelling. The corals were very beautiful but we couldn't find so many fishes.
At the pictures we can see: the yellow damsel, vermiculated angelfish, staghorn damsel, Crescent wrasse, russell's snapper juvenile.
After swimming and playing at the beach, we came back to the ship. The next stop would be manta point. However the journey was a bit longer this time, so we enjoyed laying at the boat for a while, feeling with the wind and watching the ocean. We even saw dolphins jumping not so far away.
Taka Makasar island
Close to Manta point, there is a small piece of sand that rises from the ocean. It has the shape of a banana and it is called "Taka Makasar island", even though it is not an island! The anchor was dropped close to the island and we had a tasty lunch while watching at our next destination.
The small boat brought us to the island. From there we could see the place where all the ships dropped the people in order to see the mantas, but before going there we were gonna relax a little and do some snorkelling.
At the pictures we can see: black-backed butterflyfish, foxface rabbitfish, longfin bannerfish, threespot dascyllus juvenille, bengal sergeant, clarck's anemonefish, humbug dascyllus.
Manta Point
Apparently, all the ships make the same procedure. One of the crew gets at the prow of the boat and looks for the mantas while the ship keeps moving. Whenever they saw the mantas all the tourists jump to see them.
I think this procedure might allow the tourists to see the mantas, however, all the people from all the boats jumping over the manta at the same time must be unpleasant for her. Moreover, there were so many people that it was unpleasant for us as well.
Thankfully the manta was very fast so she left soon, but we were as well! We followed the manta and left the other people behind. Finally, we could enjoy being with her.
At the picture and the video, we can see a reef manta ray.
Siaba island or Turtle point
The next stop was the turtle point, it is located at Siaba island and it is not so far to Taka Makasar island, just like manta point. The procedure was different this time, we just had to jump and look for the turtles ourselves.
We thought it would be difficult to find the turtles, but still, we found two that were together, laying between the coral. When they left we decided to follow them to enjoy their swim. Suddenly, a lot of different turtles appeared from everywhere, three on the left, another to the right, the couple that we were following... It was amazing! We enjoyed a lot our time in the water with them.
At the pictures and video we can see three different turtles
After the swimming with turtles time was over, we came back to the ship. The captain moved to a nice place to moor the ship. Where we could have dinner and relax at the boat with the sound of the wind and the waves while swinging like a crib.
According to the program we should have slept at Gili Lawa island to have an early morning trekking to see the sunrise. I really wanted to go there as I had seen very beautiful pictures, but the island was closed due to a fire. In spite of this, we went to see the sunrise at Kanawa island, our supposed next stop.
Kanawa island
Kanawa island is one of the few islands at Komodo National Park that has a resort. In fact, it is quite nice but I don't know how much will it cost to sleep there. We arrived at the island just in time to see the sunrise.
There is a small hill where you can climb and have short early trekking. The views from the whole Komodo National Park could be seen from there, it was amazing.
After the trekking, we came back to the boat where our delicious breakfast was waiting for us. After refreshing a little bit we came back to the island where we would stay the rest of the morning.
The sea was very beautiful and calm and we could swim peacefully there. We had a walk around the beach and of course, we did some snorkelling.
The reef was very nice and we found some protective fishes that attacked our fins if we got closer than they allowed. It was very funny! I also found a big octopus very close to the coast, I really love this animal, especially when they change colours (he does it at the second video).
At the pictures and the videos we can see: masked rabbitfish, vermiculated angelfish, barred filefish, staghorn damsel, blackvent damsel, crescent wrase.
At the videos we can see the octupus interacting with the other fishes. At the second video the octopus feels atacked so he changes their colours incredibly fast.
After 10 days in this enigmatic island, we took our flight back to Bali from Labuan Bajo. To know a little bit more about Flores and the accommodations we stayed at click at Flores the exotic island.
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