February 29th, 2024

Today was one of the prettiest places we have been. Not so much the island but the bay we were anchored in. We were between the Indian Ocean and the Flores Sea and the water was very calm and had some great patches of blue.

Our view of Rinca island

The beautiful water color

We anchored off Rinca Island at 9am and we were one of the first tours to shore.. Komodo National Park spans 670 sq miles and this includes 3 islands and 26 small isles. The Komodo is the largest lizard in the world and they can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh 150 pounds. They are meat eaters but not aggressive towards man.

A giant statue of the dragons when you get to the island

The island also has water buffalo, deer, monkeys and wild pigs. Some of the later groups saw other wildlife but we just saw the dragons and 1 monkey. The entire tour was about 3 hours and that included a 20 minute boat ride to and from the boat to shore. It was hot and humid and we were warned about excessive heat and to drink lots of water.

A juvenile dragon 2 juveniles Komodos

Some of the adults, because of the heat they don’t move around a lot

The island has raised walkways and fences to keep you from interacting with the dragons. They also have a museum which was popular because it was air-conditioned. After you saw the dragons and walked through the museum there was a gift shop that had carved dragons of all sizes and t-shirts and magnets. We bought 1 magnet and then it was back to the tenders to get back on the boat.

We were back on board a little before noon and we were both very hot. I decided to go jump in the swimming pool and that was a huge disappointment because it was very warm, not the nice cool refreshing dip I was hoping for. There is an ice room on board and we would have done better going in that then the pool.

After lunch we read some and I took lots of pictures because it was so calm and beautiful.

These cool boats kept passing us by.

We were lucky enough to be out on the balcony right at sunset and a bunch of dolphins came by. They seemed smaller than regular dolphins but there were a lot of them. They started jumping in our wake off the stern of the boat and I managed to get some photos even though it was far away.

It was a beautiful sunset

We are now on our way to Bali where we will dock at noon. We will be in Bali for 3 days and 2 nights and Kathy and I will get off the boat and go stay at a resort for 2 nights. We have never been to Bali so we are looking forward to it.