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Komodo is a hilly, desolate yet beautiful sandwiched between Flores and Sumbawa and the big attraction is gargantuan lizards – 3m, 100kg monsters, known as ora to the locals and ‘Komodo Dragons’ to Westerners. The island is surrounded by some of the most tempestuous waters in Indonesia, fraught with riptides and whirlpools. From the sea it looks a far more fitting habitat for a monstrous lizard than for the few hundred people who live in the island’s lone village.

Komodo gets a steady it slow stream of visitor these days, but how understand how far off the beaten track it use to be, read Zoo Quest for a Dragon, by naturalist and Adventurer David Attenborough, who films the Dragons in 1956. Dragons also inhabit Rinca, Padar and coastal western Flores. Some people now prefer to visit Rinca than Komodo, since it’s closer to Labuhanbajo, has fewer visitors and dragon-spotting is less organized.

Komodo National Park encompasses an area of around 173.300 hectares, 40.728 of which is land and 132.572 sea. The highest point in the park is Gunung Sakalibo at 753m.

Orientation and Information

Komodo The only village here is Kampung Komodo, a fishing Village in an east-coast bay. On the same bay and half-hour walk of the village is Loh Liang, the tourist accommodation camp run by PHKA. There’s a Rp. 20.000 park entrance fee on arrival at Loh Liang, valid for seven days. Those going to Rinca should keep the park entrance ticket, as Rinca is part of the same national park.

The PHKA warns visitors not to walk outside the camp without one of its guides. Longer treks around the island can be organized, and the PHKA office has a list of guide fees for them. Through the dragons are a docile bunch for the most part, a lot of emphasis is put on ‘danger’ – this includes encounters with Komodo Dragons that snap your leg as fast as they’ll cut a goat’s throat, or having a cobra spit poison at you. Several years ago an elderly European wandered off alone and was never found. Locals are attacked periodically, most commonly while sleeping out in the open. The guides will happily fill you in on the latest casualties.

Rinca The PHKA tourist camp is at Loh Buaya and it’s possible to camp in some of the villages. The park entrance fee here is also Rp. 20.000 and PHKA tourist coast Rp. 10.000. Again, keep the entrance ticket if heading to Komodo.

Dragon-Spotting

Komodo You’re likely to see dragons all year at Banu Nggulung, a dray river bed about a half-hour walk from Loh Liang. The ritual feeding of dragons with goats provided by tourist is a thing of the past and dragons are now only fed when the PHKA wants to do head count. The watering hole at Banu Nggulung still attracts dragons, but since the feeding stooped less dragons are tuning up. More than likely you will see a dragon, but sighting are by no means guaranteed.

A little ‘grandstand’ overlooks the river bed where the dragons gather. Spectators are fenced off from the dragons – don’t except to walk up to the dragons and have them say ‘cheese’. A telephoto lens is handy, but not essential. A guide costs Rp. 10.000 per person.

The PHKA prefers to organized fixed times and take large groups, through with smaller groups it’s less zoo-like.

It is possible to spot dragons on some of the other walks and a few lazy ones can often be seen around the camp looking for food.

Rinca There are no set dragon-feeding places on Rinca, but there are often a few monitors hanging around the jetty and PHKA camp at Loh Buaya. The guides know spots where the dragons are likely to sun themselves, but seeing them can still a matter of luck. However, other wildlife is much more abundant than on Komodo, there are several monkey colonies, wild water buffaloes, barking deer, horses, wild pigs, bush turkeys and fish eagles.

Snorkeling and Diving

The national park has some of the best diving in Nusa Tenggara, but it is best arranged operators in Labuanbajo, as they know the sites. A lot of live-boards from Bali and Lombok also pass through this area. It is well known for its variety of marine live due to the convergence of the warmer Flores Sea and the cooler Sumba Strait, really the Indian Ocean. This brings a lot of plankton which the rays and whales are drawn to feed on during their migration from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea. Dolphins are also common in the seas between Komodo and Flores.

Snorkeling can be arranged from Loh Liang, equipment costs about Rp. 50.000 and boat rental Rp. 200.000 for four people. Good snorkeling can be found at Pantai Merah (Read Beach) and the small island of Pulau Lasa near Kampung Komodo.

Bomb fishing previously didi a lot of damage to the reefs in the national park, but it is no patrolled by navy vessel and the coral side to be recovering well. The areas around Pulau Tata and Gili Dasampi are less effected and offer some of the best diving in the park, but the currents can be ferocious. The southern tip of Pulau Padar also has reasonable diving in Batu Balong has long been a favorite with divers.

To view coral without getting your feet wet, take the glass-bottom boat that cruises the bay around Loh Liang and pantai Merah, it coast Rp. 50.000 per person, but will only operate if there are a few punters.

Komodo Dragons

There were rumours of these awesome creatures long before their existence was confirmed in the West. Fisher and pearl divers working in the area had brought back tales of ferocious lizards with enormous claws, fearsome teeth and fiery yellow tongues. One theory holds that the Chinese Dragon is based on the Komodo lizard. The first Dutch expedition to the island was in 1910, two of the dragons were shot and their skin taken to java, resulting in the first published description.

The Komodo dragon is actually a monitor lizard. Monitor rings from a tiny 20g on 20cm long to the granddaddy of them all, the Komodo dragon (Varanus Komodoensis). All monitor have some thong in common, the head is tapered, the ear openings are visible, the neck is long slender, the eyes have eyelids and round pupils, and the jaws are powerful. But the dragons also have massive bodies, four powerful legs (each with five-clawed toes) and long, thick tails (which function as rudders but also be used for grasping or as potent weapon). The body is covered in small, non overlapping scales, some maybe spiny, other raised and bony.

The monitor powerful legs allow them to sprint short distances, lifting their tail as they run. When threatened they’ll take refuge in their normal resting places-holes, trees (for the smaller monitor) or water. They are dangerous if driven into a corner and will then attack even a much larger opponent. Monitor often rice up on their hind legs just before attacking and the tail can deliver well-aimed blows that will knock down a weaker adversary. Their best weapons are their sharp teeth and dagger-sharp claws, which can inflict severe wounds.

All monitor feed on other animals, small ones or insects, large ones on frogs and birds, and the ora (the local name for the Komodo dragons) on deer, will pig and even water buffalo that inhabit the island. The Komodo also eat their own dead. They can expend their mouth cavity considerably, enabling them to swallow large prey, the ora can push practically a whole goat into the throat.

Being such a large reptile, the ora rarely move until warmed by the sun. They seem to be stone deaf, but have a very keens sense of smell. Of all the monitors, the ora lays the larges eggs-up to 12cm long and weighing around 200g. The female lays 20 or 30 eggs at a times and usually buries them in the wall of a dry river, where the hatch by themselves nine month later.

Monitor are not relics of the dinosaurs age, they’re remarkably versatile, hardy modern lizards, if not exactly sensitive and new age. Why they exist only on and around Komodo island is a mystery, as is why males outnumber females by a ratio of 3.4 to one. The large population of the ora is found on Komodo, with a smaller number on Rinca and main land of Flores.

The village never hunted the monitors, which weren’t as good to eat as the numerous wild pigs on the island and for other reasons not too hard to imagine. Today the ora is an protected species.

Other Activities

Most visitors stay one night at Komodo and only visit Batu Nggulung, but Komodo has a number of other things to do and it is quite easy to spend two or more days on the island. Other area walks include climb to Gunung Ara (538m), around 3.5 hour return. The chances of seeing a dragon are slim, but there are expensive views from the top. Poreng Valley, 5.5km from Loh Liang, is another favorite dragon haunt and has a more-out-in-the-wild feeling than Batu Ngulung, the trail continues to Loh Sebita. Even if you do not spot dragons, there’s plenty of other wildlife such as wild buffaloes, wild pigs and some of Komodo’s bird life.

Kampung Komodo is a half-hour walk from the park headquarters along the beach. It’s a friendly Muslim Bugis village of silt houses infested with goats, chickens and children. The inhabitants are said to be descendants of convicts who were exiled to the island in the 19^th country by one of the Sultan in Sumbawa. Komodo is very hot most of the year, take plenty of water on any walk.

Getting There and Away

Komodo Ferries traveling between Sape and Labuanbajo have not been stooping at Komodo for several years now. While this has been bad news for independent travelers, it has been great news for boat operators as far a field as Lombok, as the only way here is bay some sort of charter. One of the most popular ways to get here is by taking a boat tour between Lombok and Flores that stops at Komodo for a night or two. See the ‘Boat Tour between Lombok and Flores’ boxed text in the introductory section of this chapter for the pros and cons of such trips.

Boat to Komodo can be chartered from Labuanbajo or Sape. It is easier and cheaper to arrange in Labuanbajo, as it is considerably closer than Sape, although it is becoming increasingly expensive to charter the boat, and hotel and boat operators prefer to sell tours. Boats cost about Rp. 400.000 for a day trip to Komodo for up to six people and the journey takes about four hours each way. Rinca is often more popular than Komodo when coming from Labuanbajo as the boat trip takes about half the time. Komodo is probably better suite a two day trip from Flores and the Boat cost about Rp. 800.000 for up to six people. Arranging a through trip from Flores to Sumbawa or Sumbawa to Flores is also possible, but it usually works out to be more expensive than the Lombok trips for fewer days.

Rinca There are no regular passenger ships of Ferries to Rinca, so the only option is to charter. It’s only two hours or so by motor boat from Labuanbajo to Rinca, a charter bout cost around Rp. 250.000 up to six people. Ask at the Hotels or around the harbor.