20231121 AAAA Trip - Rinca, Indonesia - Komodo National Park - This trip is Dragon on and on

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 66/105 - Rinca, Indonesia - Komodo National Park

We anchored just off Rinca (pronounced Rin-cha) Island, part of Komodo National Park in Indonesia.  Since there was no port, the ship's tenders, a.k.a. lifeboats, were in use to transport us to shore.

Our 9:30 a.m. tour - the first of the day - met in the Star Theater at 8:50 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. departure.  We arrived at the Star Theater at 8:45 a.m. and were surprised to see a throng of people heading out of the Star Theater.  It seems that they started early and were taking the first three groups off as we got down there.  We were assigned to group #5.  We waited just a few minutes and groups #4 & #5 were called to head to the tender.  Our two groups were loaded onto a tender.  It turns out that we got lucky as our tender had plenty of room.  We heard later from someone in group #3 that they were packed shoulder-to-shoulder and knees-to-knees in the tender.

We made the 15-20 minute ride to the pier, at about 9:30 a.m. and saw our first wildlife - a couple of monkeys and a bird on the shore.

We disembarked the tender and walked up the pier to the entrance to the park.

We met our guide.  He explained that this would be roughly a mile walk and the entire tour would take 1:15 to 1:30 to complete.  Off we went in search of dragons.

The entire walk was on an elevated wooden boardwalk of sorts. 

Several of the residents take advantage of the shade it provides.

Timor rusa deer

It didn't take long to see some of the residents of honor hiding in the shadows as well.  It made for some challenging photography and I'm not thrilled with the results, but you'll get the idea.

We continued walking, spotting dragons under ranger buildings and occasionally in the open.  We made stops along the way for information.

Our ranger carried a forked stick to shoo away any inquisitive dragons - there weren't any

Male dragons live for up to 40 years or so, females about 30. They are apex predators meaning they have nothing that hunts them, other than other Komodos. They are cannibalistic. They track dragons over their life and measure weight and length changes.  Komodo dragons can get to be ten feet in length and can weigh upwards of 150 pounds. They can consume up to 80% of their body weight in a sitting. To put that into perspective, if you weighed 150 pounds, to eat like a Komodo dragon, you would have to down 480 McDonald’s Quarter Pounder sandwiches in one meal.  Since they weigh ¼ pound before cooking and less after, you’d probably have to swallow a few sleeves of large fries as well.  Yikes!

Komodos have a keen sense of smell/taste through their forked tongue, able to detect blood in the air up to six miles away

We saw young adults and juveniles.  Larger, older adults were avoiding the heat. We stopped at a small museum in the park.  We saw general information about the dragons and skeletons of a male and a smaller female dragon.

The female in the closer skeleton - the larger mail is behind

Outside the museum, a juvenile dragon was climbing a tree.  They are only able to climb trees for about three years.

There appeared to be a dead something in the tree

Tastes like chicken

Nom nom nom

Is that a smile?

All too soon, our tour was over. We were a little disappointed that there really wasn’t any other wildlife to see.  Of course, that’s not Viking’s fault and nature does what nature does.  The island is home to many birds and other wildlife, but they are mainly active in the cooler (relatively) mornings and early evenings.

There were a few small shops at the back of the park and Arlona wanted to browse, but we were told that we needed to vacate for the next group. We walked back to the pier, arriving back at 10:30 a.m. – almost exactly one hour after we started the tour. Given that we were ahead of schedule, I’m not sure why there was a rush.  That became even more of a question because our tender didn’t arrive for an hour.  We sat in the heat until 11:30 a.m., waiting for a tender to come from the ship.  That was a little infuriating given that they rushed us through the tour.

There were a few fish to keep us entertained while we waited

Some of the Viking beverage team was there to ensure everyone stayed hydrated

We finally got on a tender just after 11:30 a.m. and made the 15-minute ride to the ship.

On the way back, we passed another tender making its way to the pier – I guess we were the only group made to wait

When we got to the ship, there was yet another tender tied up.  This meant we had to sit just off the ship for 15 more minutes.  I don’t want to sound like I’m whining, but when you’re in a lifeboat with temps hovering near 90 and 80% humidity, and there is absolutely no air moving as the boat is just sitting, it gets very uncomfortable very quickly.

We were finally able to tie up and get back on Orion.  The planning and organization of excursions on this entire journey has been lacking.  Perhaps it is the Shore Excursion Manager.  Perhaps it is because Viking only goes this way twice per year.  Perhaps it is because they haven’t run this route for a couple of years because of COVID.  I don’t know, but it is definitely impacting our trip.

While we were waiting to sail, Arlona noticed a huge group of birds splashing in the water.  It looked like they were dining on some kind of fish.  They were diving constantly.

This was our last stop in Indonesia, so farewell.  It’s been fun.  We sailed just before 5:00 p.m. and started making our way toward Darwin, Australia.  

Hooking up the tenders

Darwin is one of just a few places in the world that doesn’t follow a typical time zone.  Tonight, we will be setting out clocks ahead 90 minutes - yup, one hour plus 30 minutes.  How strange is that?  We’ll be 30 minutes off from the hour from nearly everywhere else.

We pre-gamed at the Explorers' Bar before dinner at the World Café. Tonight, Assistant Cruise Director, Harry, ran a Name That Tune game in the Explorers’ Bar at 8 p.m. We paired up with another couple, and in our now long-standing tradition, scored 11/15 – one out of the mimosas. 12/15 won the game.  Tonight, it was show tunes. Harry played a tune and you had to name the musical it was part of. We did better than we expected, and as always, we had fun.

Tonight, they showed a movie on the pool deck. As we usually do, we grabbed popcorn and brought it back to the room. I was munching that as I was typing this.

We received Australian entry cards in the room tonight. We need to fill out ridiculously complex and wholly unnecessary documents before we arrive in Australia. If countries don’t want tourism, just say so and we’ll happily stay away. Don’t say you want tourists and then make it a pain in the butt to gain entry. Just sayin’…

Time to adjust the clock an hour and a half forward and hit the hay.  Tomorrow is a sea day as we travel to Australia.