Komodo Indonesia

While I was working on the cruise ship and doing 10 day cruises between Singapore and Bali I had the once in a life time opportunity to go ashore by tender to the island of Komodo.

What was so special about this was this island was inhabited by the Komodo Dragon. We would get a walking tour once ashore to the place or pit where the locales use to feed the dragons.

The leader with his stick to ward off any attacking Komodo would lead us through some open area. As we were walking and staying close together ,we could see in the distance a Komodo or two. Naturally if you were to stray from the pack you might set yourself up to be easy prey for this dragon which is probably the closest thing to a dinosaur you will ever see. Their eyesight isn't great but their sense of smell is quite something. If you had an open wound the smell of it would attract the Komodo. In fact , I heard of one time when a woman was on her time of the month and a Komodo came pretty close because it could pick up a scent.

Well when we got to the look out point where the Komodos were being fed it was quite a bizarre set up. We had to walk through an open area to a viewing area located right in the middle of a few Komodos who were just lazing around after having ate so much. Now if they wanted to attack us it would not have been a problem since the only separation we had from the Komodos was a fence that if you could imagine was just a couple of pieces of wood held up by a post. Not much protection from a predator that can run faster than any human.

Luckily , they were well fed by the deer the locales use to throw into the pit. Now a deer can out run a Komodo over a long distance but the Komodos were smart. They use to chase after the deer till they got to the beach area then the deer would run into the water. Then the Komodo would just sit down on the beach and wait for the deer to tire then when it had to come ashore the Komodo would easily catch up with it and have it for his lunch. Smart Komodo!

I took the tour twice to see these prehistoric creatures but what I hear now , is because the Komodo was getting too lazy and use to letting the locales feed them , they have stopped feeding them altogether. What this means is that walk through the open area to visit the Komodo might not be as safe as it was when I took the tour some years ago.

I am glad it was the way it was back then as I am not sure I would want to take the tour now with those Komodo dragons being a bit more hungry.