Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Today we stopped at the Komodo National Park, our first of three stops in Indonesia. Specifically, we were on the island of Rinca home to the Komodo National Park Museum and visitors center. The national park spans 670 square miles encompassing 26 small isles and the three larger islands of Padar, Komodo and Rinca. Rinca was a great place to see the world famous Komodo Dragon, the world’s largest lizard. The Komodo Dragons can grow up to ten feet long and typically weigh about 150 pounds. The Komodo’s feed on the native deer, wild pigs and water buffalo that inhabit Rinca. The Komodo Dragons rarely need to capture live prey directly, since their venomous bite delivers toxins that inhibit blood clotting causing the animal to go into shock and die. Additionally, their saliva contains a high level of bacteria that also cause infections contributing to the death of their prey. Full grown Komodo’s have been known to attack humans.

We arrived mid-morning, so we had a little bit of scenic sailing on our way into the bay where we anchored for the day.

Today the excursion offered was a ranger led tour of the park. There is an elevated board walk that leads from the tender pier to small museum and visitor center. The tour was a little over an hour long and no additional time was allowed on the island. Apparently, the park has strict rules regarding the number of people that can be in the park at any given time, so we were shuttled over on tender boats in small groups. As one group finished the tour a new group arrived. It was very hot and humid so most of the Komodo Dragons that we saw were in the shade, making photographing them a little challenging, but we have a few pictures worth sharing.

Our next port will be tomorrow, 1 March, in Bali, Indonesia.