After our last dive, the boat steered for the park station on Rinca Island. It's a tad anticlimactic to seek out the famous Komodo dragons on an island other than Komodo, but in fact, for some reason, populations of the world's largest reptile are greater on Rinca. Our 60+ safari boat wriggled its stern into a tiny pie-wedge of a space between other safari boats at the end of a dock, and we clambered off. Chris matched us up with a guide, a wiry man of indeterminate age from a local village (with enough English to do his spiel but not to answer questions!) who, armed with a forked stick, took us down the path to the base camp where we paid our park fees. (Everything has a price, including cameras!)
The dragon tour includes an hour's hike around a loop trail passing through areas of typical Rinca vegetation in hopes of catching sight of any or all of the park's animal denizens: water buffalo, Timor deer, monkeys, megapode birds, wild horses, goats, snakes (including a spitting cobra!) and, of course, dragons.
Tho Komodo Dragon is the world's largest reptile. It is actually a monitor lizard that can grow to 3 1/2 meters in length. It has stout legs on which it can get up and run short distances to chase down prey, a huge tail which it can use as a weapon, and a bite so full of bacteria that even prey that it can't subdue in the primary attack -- like water buffalo -- will eventually succumb. The Dragon will wait.
So, should it be so inclined, a human isn't unrealistic prey for a dragon with either an appetite or a fit of pique! PR for the dragons is such that tourists and cruisers are warned to exercise serious caution, and our guide, although pledging to do his best to protect us, made it clear there were no guarantees. The forked stick was not terribly reassuring.
We enjoyed our walk for the chance to stretch our legs and the opportunity to learn a bit about the dragons' behaviors. For example, a female dragon, in August and September, will dig its nest where a megapode bird has previously dug her nest, and then dig two more holes as camouflage. The female will guard the nest for three months but then will leave. The eggs incubate for eight or nine months and hatch around April.
This is the critical time for the babies. Upon hatching they must scamper fast up into the limbs of the trees before their mamas and papas (and all the neighbors!) come back to catch them and eat them! Nice parenting! The babies stay in the trees eating geckos until they grow to about 1.5 meters at about three years, when they can no longer manage to climb. It is about this time that they develop the bacteria in their saliva.
On our hike we saw a water buffalo, a megapode bird, monkeys, the banyan trees the baby dragons favor for hiding places, the tamarind trees the monkeys favor for the fruit, and the dry river bed where in the rainy season the dragons can catch the larger animals...but we didn't see any of the 1700+ dragons counted on Rinca. No worries on that account though, because we had already seen six dragons sprawled like road kill outside the base camp kitchen!
On our walk back to the dock, however, as the path stretched across a wide flat that appeared to have, in wetter times, been flooded, we actually saw a dragon on the move "in the wild." The sun was setting and the park closing to the public, so perhaps he was on his commute home. A troop of monkeys scampered across the flats in front of him, and he moved along handily behind them. The males in our own troop -- Don, Tom, (Japanese diver) Masaji, and deckhand Vernon scampered off in pursuit with the camera. Vernon still had the stick.
As the sun set and the boat rafted back up with Quantum Leap, we were a little sad to be wrapping things up. They, of course, urged us to dive with them the next day, too, but the cost was mounting up. We had a very good two days with Bajo Dive. Their friendly set-up -- with hot tea and coffee always available in thermoses at the table -- facilitated conversation over the shared fish i.d. book. All three dive masters were friendly and informed, and we all felt that spending the $$$ to dive with a local operation, even to saving the fuel on Quantum Leap to make the run down to Rinca, was well worth it. We recommend them highly to those that followed.
Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad
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