Komodo National Park, part 2

We decided to take the adventurous route to get from Bali to Lombok - a liveaboard boat tour through the Komodo Island National Park.

Our boat was a very basic ship, but offered a clean bed, good Indonesian food, great travellers, and interesting crew.

After leaving Labuan Bajo, our first stop was Kelor Island. This white sand beach offered gorgeous snorkeling. And, there were aggressive fish that came at us with their teeth bared. Luckily they were small, since they left bite marks with two sets of very sharp teeth. We also heard that divers are quite scared of these fish in areas where the fish are bigger. I totally get it. The stop got better when we got to watch baby sharks in the warm, shallow waters. It was delightful to see them dart around.

In the afternoon, we searched for sea turtles at Manjarite Island. Our captain, who is a good swimmer, jumped in the water with a bright lifejacket for us to follow. At first, we saw a turtle or two at a distance, swimming away very fast. Then, after a time (and after picking out quite a few pieces of plastic sea garbage), we sighted a turtle in the shallow waters. We got to watch this turtle use his beak to crack off and eat coral. Many little fish surrounded the turtle in order to nibble on the bits that floated away. We all watched this in amazement. The turtle didn’t seem to mind an audience. Mathai and Susanna must have stayed for 45 minutes watching the turtle in action.

We ended the day at Kalong Island, watching thousands of bats leave their caves on the island in search of dinner. The sunset was spectacular.

Our captain banged on our doors before dawn. Time to get up! We loaded our small boat in the pre-dawn glow at arrived at Padar Island. We hiked to the top with all the other tourists to soak up the sunrise over gorgeous scenery.

Breakfast on the boat was typically pancakes, which we learned was a regular Indonesian breakfast – at least the kind that is offered to tourists.

In the heat of the morning, we arrived to Komodo Island. Our guides were youngish local men from the island who have grown up with these very large lizards. We were able to observe the dragons both walking and resting. Incredible creatures. And large. Turns out they are lazy hunters, but they can be. All they need is one bite on their prey, and then over a few days the bite will continuously bleed and get infected due to a poison in the lizard’s saliva.

The afternoon stop was Pink Beach, which gets its name from microscopic animals called which produce a red pigment on the coral reefs. The beach was not so pink except in the waters. The coral gardens were in incredible condition, and we saw so many stunning corals and fish during our snorkels.

The last stop that day was to swim with manta rays. These huge beasts were gliding by us with gaping mouths, to collect plankton. Extraordinary.

From that night on, it was all about getting to our destination of Lombok. We motored through the night. Our one stop that day was Moyo Island. We took a 20-minute trek up a beautiful waterfall that looked like it was formed from mineral deposits. We had a chance to do some wonderful snorkeling here too. Sadly, it was at this spot that Susanna lost an earing Aaron had gifted her 25 years earlier.

Aaron and Susanna had noticed that many of our new friends on the boat were closer in age to our boys, than to us! Yet of course, they were closer to us parents in life stage. At the waterfall, we had to laugh when we realized that many of the people on the trip were the same age as this gift.

Us parents were delighted to see how confident our boys were chatting with the other travellers, often setting out on the small transfer boat without us, or hanging out on deck in a different group than us.

On the morning of our last day on the boat, we had a short hike up a hill on Kenawa Island. The people living there have no running water – they need to bring it in by boat. A challenging lifestyle, no doubt.

We arrived in East Lombok in the morning and said goodbye to our new friends.Read more