Indonesia is a large Archipelago with more than 13,000 islands. Most of them are uninhabited. But Komodo has the Komodo Dragon National Park. Supposedly there are about 2,000 people living on this very large but hilly island with something like 5,000 Komodo dragons.
It was hot and humid when we left the ship. And the ship anchored in the bay and we tendered to shore. The only thing to do was to take an excursion through the National Park.
And that had to be a guided tour. They didn’t want anyone to be eaten!
We saw 5 dragons but mostly they were all just laying down. They hunt meat but mostly in the early morning when it is cooler. And then they just lay around. This guy was searching for something to eat but he wasn’t going to move very much. Notice his tongue. That looks dangerous enough. They typically eat the native wild boars, deer and other small rodents. But they are carnivores, so they will eat their young. Disgusting!
We did see this wild native orchid just growing on the side of a tree. They are so difficult to grow at home and here they just grow with no interference.
So we walked with our guide up and down the paths as designated until we saw the dragons, heard stories about the special trees one of which mothers can make something to eat when they are pregnant so that her baby will be good at math (sounds like a fib to me). After walking for a couple hours and several miles we had seen quite a bit and were soaking wet with sweat. There were 5 deer just sitting on the beach near to the pier where our tender was docking.
Johnson's Travel 