Aug 29-Sept 1
Hi All,
We sadly left Labuan Bajo around 1:15pm on Monday, Sept 29……I say sadly as we really bonded with the town and its mixture of cultures!!!! We arrived at the Rinca ranger station anchorage around 3:30 after a very active 2 hour run…..active as we had to dodge 5-10 boats….very busy in the Park!!! We had heard that this anchorage is small and can get very crowded. The advice was to arrive late in the afternoon when hopefully many of the day boats have left. When we arrived there were 2 day boats in the anchorage and several tied to the dock. We anchored in about 40′ sort of hugging the shore as to not get into the narrow channel. Kathy stayed on the boat for anchor watch and I went into shore to buy our tickets. I’m not sure how many tickets…..maybe 6 or so, one for each us, the boat, the park, the dinghy et al….whoa…..but the cost was USD40……the Ranger asks when do you want to go…..I said we had been told to go early as possible when the Dragons are most active…..oh, ok……I think your American friends were here several days ago and did the same thing…..yep!!!
Diving in Komodo Park and seeing the Komodo Dragons are bucket list items for us. So we had a celebratory dinner that night after watching all the boats leave and having the anchorage all to ourselves. It was another nature show with various monkeys and several eagles and birds flying around. There were even 2 fisherman with nets fishing after all the boats left. We cooked steaks, bakers and a huge salad…..yes, Kathy still has lettuce…..and of course, some nice wine….1998 Staglin Cabernet……OMG, it was a TEN!!!!!
So we were up early and at the Ranger station by 6:20 for our 6:30am tour….hmmm, should have had the 2nd cup of coffee…..the Ranger shows up at 6:50 and says I remember you…..good to go……but in the mean time we had seen 2 Dragons and many monkeys. OMG. these Dragons are huge……yes, a big monitor lizard….but I was unprepared by how big, ferocious and quite frankly, mean looking they are!!! We were the only tourists there until a Chinese family of 4 showed up around 6:45……….oh, this is going to be good!!!! We meet Kun our personal guide and he says which trek…..we say the “long” one…..he says really, we say yep….why….that is what our friends recommended…..more Dragons on the “medium” trek……hmmm, still want the long….are you sure…..well, pretty sure…..more Dragons on “medium trek and it’s 3k long, not so hot”….ok, we will do the “medium”…..good choice Papa……hmmmm!!!!
If you want to know about the Komodo Dragons here is a good website:
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/reptilesamphibians/facts/factsheets/komododragon.cfm
We spent about 1.5 hours trekking through the forest and savanna and had a great time…..we were the only ones on the trail……a private tour…….lot’s of monkeys, some birds, a piglet, and deer but no water buffalo. Kun took us to 3 female nests. Females lay about 60-80 eggs and bury them in these mounds. They dig several holes in the mound to confuse the predators which hole the eggs are in. The baby dragons have a 20% survival rate and live in trees for the first few years!! We were fortunate to see 2 females, one guarding her nest and one out foraging for food close to her nest!!
Back at the Ranger station compound we came upon 3 big males by the kitchen. Hmmm, do you feed the dragons…..no, upon which the kitchen throws out some fish and we then watch the scramble/fight for the next few minutes. A lot of hissing and aggressive stands but no real fighting!!! We then were treated to a baby dragon out in the forest…..cool!!
We ended the tour in a co-op gift shop. One of the larger Dragon wood carvings caught our eye……Kathy takes the Dragon up to the counter and tries to bargain……no luck…..she comes back and says I still want it…..ok, let the Captain give it a go…..I go up and everyone starts laughing……hmmm, saw this going differently…..the Ranger comes up and says everyone tries to bargain but this is a co-op for the local people and we do not bargain….but, nice try, not bad for a Yank:)))) The Dragon cost USD115 and was probably worth half of that but the memory is priceless. The rangers were all very grateful that we bought the statue and thanked us profusely for “helping out the local people”. So, never say die John asks, since we paid full price will you take us back to the kitchen and let us watch the Dragons some more….well, we are not supposed to but since you bought a big one, ok…..so we go back with another guide and watch for another 10 minutes. It was a great call, as we got to see the 3 males interact some more and 2 additional, very brave (the dragons are cannibals and will happily eat the little guys!) juveniles come to investigate the goings-on!!! Many thanks to the wonderful rangers on Rinca Island!!
We saw 11 total Dragons….3 juveniles, 2 females, and 6 males…..whoa…..what a great day and a memory we will always treasure!!!
We were underway by 10am for our next destination Gili Lawa Darat, in the northwest part of the Park and about 15nm away. Our friends on Bella Vita had been there several days ago and loved it….very calm, beautiful and quiet. Hmmm, we did not get the memo on where exactly they stayed and we went to the anchorage given by the book…..when we got there the only mooring was open…cool, but over the next few hours more and more liveaboards boats came in. There is a No Anchoring sign but no matter, out comes all the anchors. At first it kind of bugged us but after a while it reminded us of our BVI chartering days and we just relaxed and enjoyed the show. One of the boats next to us was a couple from London and they came over and gave us a lot of intel on what to do in the anchorage.
It is called Shotgun Alley and is the channel between Gili Darat and Komodo Island and the current can rip through there. The couple did the a snorkel 3 times and said it was the best they had seen in all of Indonesia….their Captain said 2nd best. The next day I gave it a go…..the current was not ripping….maybe a knot…..I did tow the dinghy…..well, I think we have been spoiled by the diving. I will give it a 7-8……excellent but we’ve seen better. I did see a Crocodile Flathead fish…..maybe 1.5′ long…..whoa. Of course, towing the dinghy I did not have the Go Pro!!! Later on Kathy and I snorkeled the west side of the bay….excellent but there was some coral damage and bleaching:((((
OK…..I’m going to do the Mt Rinjani crater rim trek in about 5 days so I get in a small training climb up the hill….maybe 700′ but at a good 45 deg angle……well, the legs did fine but I was sucking air and it was HOT!!!!!! But OMG, the views…..awesome!!!!
Speaking of the heat…..after several sleepless nights, the Admiral has laid down the law……she said no more sleeping in sweat…..use the AC. So we have started the practice we learned in the Sea of Cortez and Panama. We turn on the AC when we run the GEN at night for about 2-2.5 hours to cool down the stateroom. It gets to about 72 deg F and no humidity, which might be the best part……the stateroom stays fairly cool until 2-4 am when we open up the boat and hopefully by then the ambient air is below 80 deg F!!! Much more comfortable and better sleeping!!
We did a dive off Mystic today….it was very nice…..lot’s of hard coral, a wide variety of small and medium size reef fish…..nothing big!!! I did tow the dinghy as we were uncertain about the currents. It seemed Moon-Lite fought me the whole time so we must have had a changing current and swirlies in the bay. It was a good thing we came up close to Mystic as after we got all our gear in the dinghy we discovered we forgot the safety key and could not start the motor…..it was a short row:)))))
We are leaving today around 5pm for an overnight passage to Kananga….about 120nm…..we will speed up a bit to 8 knots and 1600 rpm. The forecast is for trawler like conditions. The only concern is all the fish traps. We plan to go about 9-10 miles offshore in very deep water…..of course tonight there is a New Moon so it will be dark but hopefully we will get some star light!!! We will spend one night in Kananga then do another overnight to Medana Bay where I will climb Mt Rinjani and we will also extend our Visas and purchase fuel via a fuel truck!!!! We had not planned to go this fast but our Rally once again gave out some misinformation. We had hurried our schedule to try to be in Bali in time to extend our Visas. They told us if we got there by the 9th or 10th we would be ok, but it has since come out that we need to be there on the 6th…..great……no way to make that date but we had already booked the marina (well, there is a dock) and the climb in Medana on Lombok so thus the 2 overnighters. Once we are in Medana we do not have anything else scheduled so we can be much more flexible in our schedule.
Hope all is well!!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO!!!!
PS: Pictures in a gallery on the website: http://mysticmoonvoyages.com/photo-gallery/nggallery/main-album/Komodo-Dragons
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