428 - Komodo

The only reason to stop here was to see the dragons.  There's nothing else on the island.

The islands that make up Komodo National Park look a lot like Southern California.  Although it's in the tropics, it's dry much of the year. 

 We tender to the island.

Two of our guides.  Each group of 25 guests had 3-4 minders to keep people together, a long forked sticks to keep any wandering dragons at bay. 

 After walking about 1.5K we approached the water hole where there were five dragons.  They can get up to 11' long and weigh over 300lbs, yet they can move very quickly when they want to.  During our time around the water hole a couple of them starting to wander towards the guests and the guides jumped in with their sticks to suggest a different path.

 

 There were three males, one female and one juvenile. 

The dragons have teeth like sharks, constantly renewing.  Their mouths are cesspools of bacteria, and just being bitten gives you a great chance of death from listeria.

 This picture is for Sarah, the juvenile is walking away from the group into the woods.  Guides estimated his age at 8 months and I estimate his length as two feet, head to tail.

 Like snakes the dragons use their tongue to smell.

This is the smaller of the adults, the female.  In spite of my requests, the guide would not go stand alongside any of them so we could get a sense of scale.  The tourists are standing about 30 feet beyond the draon.

 Our primary guide

 Exit through the gift shop.  Even with nothing else on the island, there's a chance to buy souvenirs.

 Back home as seen from the tender.  Fortunately the seas were calm.

It was great seeing the dragons, and there was some subterfuge in play.  They don't feed the dragons, but they do provide a water line from up in the mountains to the water hole we went to.  That guarantees that some animals will be near the nice level trail that the cruise ship tourists take.  It wouldn't be good for gift shop commerce if 400 cruise passengers were disappointed.