Sunday, December 7, 2014

A Day with the Dragons


 

                                                        The bait
 
                                            A Komodo dragon come towards us
                                         The dragon licking his lips
He eyes us off

                                                     Three dragon hunters
The surviving Dragon hunters on the pier
 
 
Komodo Island is the home of the fierce looking Komodo dragon.  Fully grown they can be 4 metres in length and up to 200 kg.  For the first 3 years of their life after hatching out of the egg, they live in the trees on the island eating birds and insects.  From then on, they become land animals, hunting in packs and producing a toxin that sends their prey into shock before they kill it.

We went ashore by tender on a very hot morning and were met by guides carrying stout sticks to protect us from marauding dragons.  People who had open wounds were warned not to come as dragons can smell blood from kilometres away.

We walked along a path through the forest and on the way we saw several deer and a distant dragon.  After about an hour and a half we arrived in a clearing where several dragons of varying sizes were resting.  The largest was over 3 metres long.  We took lots of photos and the guides kept a wary eye on the dragons.

No-one was attacked today but there was a recent case when a fisherman and his son were eaten. On a previous visit by our cruise ship, a lady fell and cut her leg.  Several dragons smelt the blood and appeared on the scene within minutes.

Komodo Island is now a national park with only a very small population living in 2 villages.

This was a fascinating place to visit! Very hot but worth it!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Gail & Rob
Glad you weren't eaten by a Dragon.
Do you know I have to prove I am not a robot to comment

gailandrob said...

Hi Anonymous,
Glad to hear from you but is your identity a secret?

Miss Di said...

Wow, and I thought the goannas down at Conjola that steal the snags off the barbie were scarey! Glad you survived unscathed and I think I'll quietly cross Komodo off my bucket list and stick to photos...

Amanda said...

They do not look very friendly! Was it scary?