To see more about Komodo and Rinca Parks, World Heritage Site and the DRAGONS: Komodo Park & Rinca Park
Onward to Bali, we passed a local sailing boat. There were hundreds of these around. The skill level is high as the seas can be a bit overwhelming for these small craft.
There is a big “Introduction to SCUBA” industry here. 100’s of uncertified divers are escorted on brief introductory dives. It seemed a bit too many to me.
Though very pretty, it smelled terrible, the locals were dependent on tourists but very jaded an the local boats were about a rude as rude can be.
Gili Air (air means island) is a famous tourist destination very near Bali. Not our favorite place.
This marina was a group of moorings. The one dock was too exposed to use in my opinion. The rally would be here in a few weeks.
This marina was a group of moorings. The one dock was too exposed to use in my opinion. The rally would be here in a few weeks.
Arrival at Medang Marina. We stayed a day.
En route to our next destination, we passed this ex pat Aussie on his cat.
The anchorage was shallow and tricky inside the reef seen behind the boat.
Views from our hike at Komodo National Park.
The monitor lizards when dealing with large prey, will bite them and retreat. They follow the prey for up to two days. They have a very virulent bacteria in their saliva which infects and incapacitates their prey. Then they go in for the feast.
Look at those claws!
Guide with stick, explaining the nesting of the Komodo Dragons.
The guides all carry one of these as we walk through the park.
Less than two hours from Rinca is the main, Komodo Island National Park headquarters.
Guide’s building. Note the forked stick that our guide is holding. All of them take one along….”Just in case”.
Hope he’s fast!
View of the anchorage at Rinca Park.
Snake in the grass?….You can see why you wouldn’t want to wander off in the grass by yourself.
Facial detail.
At least they’re not “fire breathing” dragons.
You MUST have a free guide to enter the park. No tourists are allowed to wander on their own. This seemed prudent.
We were lucky and found one using the path through the park.
Following a “Dragon”
They catch small goats, deer and small mammals
This is a completely natural environment and the lizards hunt for themselves.
Glad they’ve eaten!
Officially, 8 people have been killed by these “dragons” over the last 50 years; most of them children.
They are mostly lethargic. But not so when hunting.
These are actually “monitor lizards”, the world’s largest, growing up to 10 feet (3.4 meters) long.
Our first “Dragon”
Construction new entrance to the park at Rinca.
Rinca, part of the Komodo National Park was one of our most interesting stops in all of Indonesia.
Dock welcoming visitors at Rinca Park.
New Outremer 49 from Europe anchored next to us. This is where we first met “This Side Up” – Mike and crew from the USA.
Anchorage at Rinca Park. This was actually a bit more interesting than Komodo as we saw more “dragons” and they were more active.
Ferry to Komodo National Park.
Nikki getting some sun and getting some protection from the sun.
Anchorage for a night. Lots of locals would come up to say hi or sell fish or crafts.
Typical inter island cargo vessel. We saw lots of these every where around Indonesian waters.
The boat on the right was a rocket ship for it’s 47 foot size and 4th to finish the rally.
Here, you can see smoke coming out of the caldera.
We left Kupang and headed for Lembatta. This mountain IS an active volcano.
Unfortunately, we picked up some dirty and “cut” with paraffin diesel fuel here. Despite lots of filtering, it would cause us issues off Madagascar.
He fixed us up in 1/2 an hour and we were good to go.
Our dinghy motor was acting up. Indonesia, like lots of maritime 3rd world countries has outboard mechanics a plenty.
Beach landing
When they found out we were an American boat and first to finish…. The camera started to roll. American’s are very popular amongst the people of Indonesia.
Most of Indonesia’s population is Muslim. This is a news reporter and her camerawoman.
The big guys were part of the show as well.
Lovely dancers of Kupang
Paula from “Mr. John VI” speaking to the group. They left 24 hours ahead of us and told me that we’d beat them there. We did!…By about 1/2 an hour.
The tide wasn’t as extreme as Darwin’s, but still of note. You can see the typical rubbish on the small reef in front of the landing site – low tide.
Landing at Kupang. Kupang is very overcrowd and very dirty. I felt a bit like we were cattle at this event.
This is the building where the six agencies checked us all in. It still took well over an hour and they were all lined up in order for us.
Welcome to Indonesia. The rally had local dance and dinners organized for the fleets arrival.
The customs officer did not swim and was a bit nervous in the dinghy. He was happy we would take him around as our dinghy was far more stable than most.
Part of the interest in the Darwin to Kupang Rally, is to easily check in to Indonesia. Our cruising permit was obtained by the rally organizers and they arranged to have customs meet us and organized in proper order the SIX agencies we had to check in with. The fee was expensive, but I looked at it as if the rally was our “agent”.
We saw this rocket ship at the start, but beat him by at least 12 hours
Boats arrived over two days. There was no marina here, all anchored. The only vessel to drag it’s anchor was the Indonesian Coast Guard…..:-)
View of the facility from the boat
187 boats arrived at Kupang over two days. BEACH HOUSE WAS FIRST TO FINISH!….
