Gliding in Komodo

It’s one of those trips that you dream of when you’re little.

Ever since you’ve seen that dragon on a National Geographic magazine. You wondered how could such a thing exist and you thought how that animal would be a majestic beast to see, but you’d never be able to. Because you probably won’t work for Natgeo.

Fast forward few years and, even though I still don’t work for Natgeo, I finally managed to explore Komodo National Park in East Nusa Tenggara. Funnily, although not surprisingly I hadn’t planned the trip beforehand, but as soon as I heard of the possibility of the park closing in 2020, I had to book a flight.

The journey started in Labuan Bajo, a small harbour town in Flores. From there, a liveaboard would take us on a 3 days cruise along Komodo National Park.

The town was very quiet and the only things you could see around were komodo statues and the sea. Ok fair enough, there was a single komodo statue but fortunately it was right in front of our hotel balcony. Did the 5 star ultra luxury resort Ayana have a komodo dragon in front of it? Of course not. And that’s the one and only reason why we didn’t stay at the super luxurious hotel.

Having no dragons is a deal breaker. Otherwise we would have stayed there. No, really we would have. Alright moving on.

The last of the 14 daily flights to and from Labuan Bajo leaves Flores

Before going to sleep full of excitement, we had to get some food. And there was nothing better than the fresh coloured fish available at the night market.

The first morning started with a long wait for the boat pickup. After boarding our rustic boat, mingling with the other boat members from all over the world and getting a free room upgrade, the journey towards the first island started.

Forty minutes later and having sailed on the bluest sea ever, we arrived at Kelor island and ‘parked’ ourselves by connecting all the boats together. You can imagine Kelor as this tiny islet consisting of a single small hill, white sand and a couple of instagram worthy spots filled with people.

Our guide Ronald leading us back to the sail. He is as much of a star as the two dolphins on his beautiful little boat

Kelor was the perfect appetiser.

But then it was time for the main course: the tour around Rinca Island. Dragon’s den.

Being very careful not to step on any dragon’s tail, we soon reached the ranger station, where locals armed with sticks would take us around the island to see the dragons and would give us some facts about them.

The coolest fact by far is that they’re cannibals. You might think, ‘oh well I’m not too surprised, look at them’. Bear with me for a second, I’ll tell you a story.

It’s the story of mamma komodo.

Mamma komodo protects its eggs from other komodos, it surely doesn’t want other dragons to eat its babies. Here’s where the plot twist is. Mamma komodo only protects its babies while they’re in the eggs. But when the eggs start cracking, it’s supper time.

For everyone. Even for mamma komodo.

And its food. I always wondered how these deers got to these tiny islands. Liveaboards probably.

The next stop was an incredible spot that I didn’t even know it was part of the tour.

We arrived there at sunset and all we could see was this rather normal looking and flat island, but it had one peculiarity: it was completely surrounded by mangroves. And as we later discovered, something hides in the mangroves.

Nanananannannannannananana, bats.

Thousands of bats that fly out of the mangroves right when the sun goes down. They were so many that they kept flying off the island and over our heads for a quarter of an hour.

Everyone was is awe.

And then we sailed into the night.

All the boats together, forming a massive line. Black all around. Accompanied by the tiny lights of the boats and the bright stars above us.

We woke up the next day in front of Padar Island at around 5am, ready for a morning hike. The hike didn’t last long, but it led us to this view:

*You can see an HD version and buy this print on my shop* https://francescoasola.smugmug.com/Prints/The-world/i-vJdPpwk/A

From the top, not only the view was absolutely stunning, but we could even see the 3 famous and rare beaches of the island. One covered in white sand, one in black sand and the last in pink sand. All of them on a single, majestic island.

As the sun got hotter and hotter, we started the descent to go back to our boat, where breakfast was waiting for us. With filled bellies, the lazy part of the day started as the next few hours were spent under the sunshine, laying down on bean bags and just enjoying the view.

Next stop, the pink beach. And of course, to get to the pink beach you have to jump into emerald waters from the top of the boat and swim to shore.

Once we got to the beach, we couldn’t believe our eyes.

Simply put, it was hard to process all those colours. The blue of the sky and the water. The bright red pieces of coral. The whitened ivory corals. The burnt green of the land.

And then all of them blending together in a single picture.

Unbelievably, the best part of the trip for me was yet to come. In fact, a lot of people I spoke with came to Komodo to see the dragons, but what really left them speechless was the massive manta rays that populate Manta Point. Manta Point was where we would stop next and that’s what I was really excited about.

On the way, while sailing next to dolphins and sea turtles, we occasionally stopped on little beaches in the middle of nowhere. One was no bigger than 20 meters in length and it was as white as the clouds.

But then it was time. A massive black spot appeared under the boat and Ronald said: “ok let’s prepare and get on the small boat”.

The plan was very simple. We would look for black spots while on the boat and then we would all jump down the boat and start swimming at the sound of “GET OUT! GET OUT!”.

It was like a hunt.

After the first ‘get out’ we all dived and that’s when the chaos started.

Bubbles were forming everywhere underwater due to all the people plunging at the same time.

But, as soon as the bubbles cleared, there it was.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. A manta ray few meters from me, slowly gliding underwater. Its wings moving elegantly.

I thought I had been already so lucky to even see one that I didn’t have hopes to see any more, but after getting back on the boat and diving down for the second time about a meter or two from another manta, that time my eyes opened up to this:

And to this:

Breathless from all the swimming after a good forty minutes of chasing mantas, I spotted a turtle moving slowly next to me. I went after it for a while before Ronald stopped me and told me to get back. Apparently, I was very close to one of the quite strong currents around Komodo National Park.

I felt like Marlin in the EAC (Nemo anyone?).

This wasn’t the first turtle I’d ever seen, but it was definitely the one I swam the longest with. And it wouldn’t even be the last one of the trip.

In fact, our guide suggested to spend the rest of the day snorkelling in a secret spot. Not a bad call. Apart from the initial scare after swimming towards the reef and seeing two innocuous sharks popping out of it, we were again surrounded by turtles and by a great afternoon light.

A big breath and then down, to get right next to the turtle for this photo.

Enough with the fish in the sea. Time to get some in our stomachs too. Fortunately, our crew knew exactly how to use their boat as a makeshift grill.

The next day we woke up next to Kanawa Island, the last stop of the trip before heading back to the mainland. The sea surrounding the island felt like an underwater garden.