Thar be Dragons!

Serendipity
David Caukill
Wed 2 Oct 2013 03:01

Monday 30th September  2013 Komodo National Park ,Rindja,  South Indonesia   8 39.2S  119 42.7E  

Today's Blog by David (Time zone BST +7.00; UTC +8.0)

 

Any self-respecting map or chart of yore, hand drawn on a scrap of paper and perhaps directing its possessor to a chest of Treasure or Pot of Gold,  would be illustrated by images of serpents whales and dragons in the areas where danger lay, perhaps with the inscription “Thar be Dragons!”  or the like. This perhaps was reflective more of a fear of the unknown than a belief that real, fire breathing Dragons of the genus  Slain by St, Georgii actually existed or, if they did, then existed there.

 

The Komodo National  Park spreads across three principal islands (aka the Komodo Group). It is an area renowned for its sea life, clarity of the water and the rich variety of corals etc. making the diving and snorkelling world class. I have already reported on the diving and this was confirmed again by snorkelling earlier today. The visibility underwater seems indefinite.  

 

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Unfortunately,  the weather and tide conditions conspired to prevent us from snorkelling at Manta Ray point which is described as their ‘cleaning station’ -  an area where the rays congregate with remora fish to be cleaned up of parasites and other undesirables attached to its skin. A piscine equivalent of antifouling, I suppose.

 

I have before lamented on the paucity of my general knowledge education; my school life, having been spent on the playing fields  or cramming for one kind of examination or another, each against a regimented  syllabus left no time for learning about the real world.  Thus, much of my perception of Asian  countries has been drawn from films about the Americans winning the war (or losing it in the case of Vietnam) and boys comics such as the ‘Victor’ and ‘Hotspur’,  many of  whose story lines were tales of military derring-do – always in the jungle.  So my preconception of Indonesia was basically hot, damp jungle.  In reality, it is indeed hot, but it is now the dry season … and I have seen no jungle. The islands are largely volcanic and reminiscent of the Marquesas – very dry on the SE side with apparently much more vegetation on the NW side, I assume as a result of the prevailing wind being driven up the mountain to cool down and precipitate on the  NW.  The environment is best illustrated  thus:

 

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However, this morning we decided to go to an area in which it is said “Thar be Dragons”!  At 06.45 about 20 of us assembled at the Ranger Station on Rindja for a  guided tour of the Park there. We were greeted on the dockside:

 

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From the Ranger Station,  we were led for a 2+ hours ‘trek’  through the woodland and then savannah.  We saw deer, buffalo, some birdlife and the mother and father of all bee hives:     

 

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Apparently, each year the rangers harvest the honey. They set a smoky fire underneath to drive the swarm away and then the newest recruit into the park rangers is deputed to climb up and extract the honey. The bottle it, keep some to eat and sell the rest.

 

And then, in the distance Thar be a Dragon!

 

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This is a Komodo Dragon – it’s what we came for.  Up to five metres long, they are carnivorous , can eat 60% of their body weight at a single sitting. However, they are not, we were told aggressive unless provoked. 

 

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If they do nip you, even just a scratch,  you are pretty much done for. Their bite is infested with all kinds of bacteria which – eventually – kills their prey.

 

Nice