Pulau Padar Besar

My boat tour of Komodo was scheduled to begin at the ungodly hour of 5.30am. I had arranged a 5am shuttle into town, but, come 5am, there was no driver. I eventually found him sleeping in a makeshift room in an annex that was under construction. I woke him up and, bleary eyed, he drove me into town. In town, I met the young man who sold me my boat tour. He had been anxiously waiting for me. We piled onto his motorbike and set off for the pier. He handed me a packed lunch and asked me to return the container to him.

We set off at around 5.50am. There were a dozen or so people on the tour. I was reminded how, among backpackers, the different linguistic groups quickly sniff one another out and group together. On this trip, my fellow English speakers were a British guy and a couple from LA.

The sun rose above Labuanbajo as we headed west. Our first stop that morning was Padar Island. En route, we saw many ruggedly beautiful islands made even more beautiful by the golden rays of sunrise. We reached Padar Island around 7.30am and we were given one hour to explore. I climbed to the top of the hill and enjoyed the spectacular scenery. The climb and descent took almost the full hour.

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