Komodo Island, Indonesia: Retrospective

After a quiet morning at sea, our first port of call of 2024 is Komodo Island, Indonesia.

The tenders have been dropped and are ferrying people ashore in search of the infamous Komodo Dragons at the national park … a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The only way to get ashore here is by being on a tour. This is a National Park rule due to the predatory nature of the carnivorous dragons … which also have deadly, bacteria-laden saliva. You can either take a ship’s tour … or organize one privately in advance (for which proof of booking on the tour company letterhead is required).

We booked neither. Having visited the island on our 2017 world cruise, we are not going ashore this time. Seen the dragons … ✔️ Done the pink sand beach snorkeling … ✔️ … the latter only possible on a private tour since the ship’s tours do not have this option.

Today, before retreating to the cool comfort of our cabin, I took some photos from Deck 10 … surprised to see how “brown” the island is this time of the year. When we visited in 2017, the landscape was mostly-covered with lush, green vegetation. Of course, we were here in March then … after the “wet” had promoted regrowth of the vegetation. You’ll see the difference in the collage I’m including with this footprint. I tried to duplicate the shot from 2017 as closely as I could considering our anchorage is slightly different today … and there is a thicker heat-haze hanging in the air.

(The story for our 2017 Komodo stop is here for anyone who is interested in reading it … https://2totravelrtw180.blogspot.com/2017/03/da…)Read more