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August 2001

Komodo and its Dragons

Odv
2004-09-15 12:29:19

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Several years ago, I read a book called "Last Chance to See", written by Douglas Adams (famous for writing "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). Among several other animals on the endangered species list, he also wrote about the Komodo Dragons the world's largest Lizards. Ever since that day I've wanted to visit Komodo.
Douglas Adams has unfortunately passed away several months before I visited Komodo. I am thankful to him for writing this book, as Komodo was one of the most interesting places I have ever visited. By inspiring people like me to visit Komodo, the locals are finding out that the dragons are worth more alive than dead. This way he might have done a lot to help save the Komodo Dragons.

Like most tourists we entered Indonesia in Bali. Getting from Bali to Komodo was anything but trivial. There was the option to take an organized tour by boat, but we would only have had 3 hours on Komodo while we wanted to spend several days.

After taking several busses and ferries, which took us 3 days in part because one of our busses broke down, we arrived in Sape on the eastern end of Sumbawa on Monday the 6th of August 2001.

From Sape you were supposed to be able to get a ferry to Komodo. In Sape however we were told it only went on Saturday (and remember it was Monday). The other days the ferry went straight to Labuanbajo (on Flores), from Labuanbajo, they said the ferry stopped at Komodo on Wednesday and Saturday. So we decided to take the ferry to Labuanbajo on Tuesday and Subsequently take the ferry "back" to Komodo on Wednesday. So we spent the night in Sape and at least got to see this beautiful sunset. There's one Guesthouse close to the port and a fine restaurant practically next door, so we spent the night there.
The ferry however cannot dock in Komodo, so a small fishing vessel meets the ferry to take travelers to Komodo. Most of those travelers were villagers from Kampung Komodo. There ...