There are surely more remote islands in the Indonesian archipelago, but perhaps none with the allure of seeing the only ‘dragons’ that still walk the earth: Komodo. I’m just back from a five day dive trip through the Komodo National Park, and it has to be one of the great experiences I’ve had for a while. I’ll detail the scuba diving in my dive blog shortly, but this is a trip that anyone with a sense of adventure can enjoy.

While the dragons – giant lizards, technically – of Komodo are well known, their domain isn’t too over-run with tourists, in part because it isn’t the easiest place to get to. My trip started in Bali, with an early morning flight to Labuan Bajo on the island of Flores. It’s a one-and-a-half hour flight aboard a small Fokker 50 plane. The flight via Riau Airlines was included in the cost of my cruise. There are two or three other airlines that fly this route, but all use small planes.

The flight arrived at the tiny Komodo Airport at Labuan Bajo, where we were met by Susanne, the co-owner of our boat, the Moana. It was a very short ride down the hill from the airport to the dock, where one of the Moana’s tenders met us to take us to the ship out in the harbor.

The Moana is only six years old, but it was built of wood in the tradition of the phinisi sailing ships that have worked these seas for hundreds of years. It can accommodate 14 passengers, but there were only 10 of us on this trip, tended to by 11 crew members. I was fortunate to get a double cabin all to myself. The cabin was quite comfortable – for one person – but cramped, as is always the case with most dive boats. Of course, you generally don’t spend much time in your cabin except to sleep on these trips, so as long as the bed is comfortable, which it was, it doesn’t matter much.

The main deck is where everyone spends most of their time, and although the Moana didn’t have an air-conditioned salon such as you find on some boats, I didn’t miss it at all. At the focal point of the main deck was a large table, where passengers ate, read, etc. and which had a glass center that served as a skylight to the gangway below. Forward of the table was an open area with deck chairs, while on the bow was a raised deck where cushions and huge pillows made for a great lounging area. There was always at least one crewman manning the ‘bar’ next to the dining table, so you could get a drink any time you wished.

We set sail as soon as everyone was on board, shortly after noon. We had a briefing on the boat from Susanne and an introduction for the divers from Engo,the dive master. After we got our cabins and dive gear arranged, lunch was served. The food on this trip was certainly worth mentioning. First off, lunch and dinner were served to us by the crew. All other dive cruises I’ve been on were buffet style. The food itself was great – perhaps not spectacular, but certainly a good cut above what I’ve ever had before. Most days, we even got fresh cooked afternoon snacks, like banana pancakes, rather than the tinned cookies most dive boats offer. Compared to other trips, this was practically fine dining.

It wasn’t long before we arrived at the first anchorage, where us divers would have our "check out" dive. This is supposed to be an easy dive, where we can check that we’ve got all our equipment in good working order, have the right amount of weight, etc. There were only five divers on this trip. The other five passengers were non-divers who would snorkel while we were diving. The Moana can only really handle ten divers at most. I won’t go into detail about the dives here except to say that most of them were quite challenging, due to strong currents, but they were extremely rewarding, in terms of what you can see. The good news for you non-divers is that the snorkelers reported seeing a lot of the same things we divers did, including sea snakes, turtles and lion fish.

A black lionfish sits on a rock just below the surface.

After the first dive, the boat sailed on to moor for the night in the sheltered bay of a small island off the northeastern tip of Komodo island. Our routine for the next couple of days was similar to most dive boats: get up in the morning, have a light snack, dive, have breakfast, dive, have lunch, dive, have a snack, dive, have dinner, then bed. As the days progressed, we worked our way down along the east coast of Komodo towards Rinca.

By the afternoon of our last full day, we were anchored in a small bay of Rinca island. We all got into one of the tenders, which took us into the next deep bay, where one of the park stations was located. We were off to see dragons!

From the dock, we walked through a dry mangrove forest and across an open field. A couple of monkeys scampered across the tall grass. On the other side of the field was the ranger station, which includes a small, rustic guest-house. Susanne had told us that the main ranger station on Komodo was a real tourist trap, so this small station on Rinca was better. At the station, we were assigned a guide, who took us on a walk along a trail through the brush to find some dragons. Actually, we didn’t even get out of the compound before a juvenile dragon sauntered through the edge of the woods. It was only seven or eight years old, we were told. We continued on along the trail for just a few minutes when a baby dragon came down the trail right toward us. Even though it was only one or two years old, this little guy had absolutely no fear of us. He stopped a few times to regard us, but then just kept walking towards us, and only veered off the train to avoid us just as he was right on top of us.

An adult Komodo dragon saunters past.

Further on, the guide was showing us a nest site, when some crashing in the bush indicated that a large adult coming towards us. The big two-meter plus lizard came out of the bush and skirted the nest site, while we all gave it a wide berth. The dragon walked parallel to the path for a bit, then veered off and we carefully walked passed. As we move on down the trail, we come to a wild water buffalo wallowing in one of the few remaining small pools, which are drying up as the hot season sets in. He seems quite happy as long as we keep our distance.

The trail loops around and soon we’re back at the ranger station, where both the baby and the juvenile are still hanging around. A macaque sits near the juvenile, and doesn’t seem at all worried about the dragon, but he must know he’s a lot faster than the lizard. As we start out across the field to the pier, a deer stands up in the tall grass. Nobody saw him until he stood up. The buck trotted along and crossed the path in front of us. In the tall trees on our right, some monkeys seemed to be raising a ruckus, either upset about the deer or another dragon.

Sunset at Bat Island

Once we got back to the Moana, the ship set sail out of the bay and around the northern-most point of Rinca. We sailed around a large mangrove forest set in the large northern bay of Rinca and moored here for the night. The mangrove is known as ‘bat island’ because every night at sunset, thousands of large bats left their roost in the forest to fly to the mainland to feed. Soon we saw a few black shapes appearing out of the trees, and this formed into a steady stream of flying foxes that lasted almost an hour. It was a beautiful sunset, with some good music playing through the boat’s sound system, and everyone was very relaxed. The amazing thing was, we were the only boat there to watch this spectacle, although another small boat showed up just as darkness finally fell.

The next morning we sailed back to Labuan Bajo, where we caught our flight back to Bali.

Update: I’ve completed updating my guides for Komodo: The diving guide to Komodo can be found at SEAundersea.com; while you can find information about the dragons and general information on travel to Komodo at AsiaForVisitors.com. You may also wish to visit Moana Cruising for information about their trips through the park.