Look out, because we have ventured into the only part of the world where you can catch the famed komodo dragons, in all their scary glory. Komodo National Park is located just west of the island of Flores, and there is no accidentally stumbling upon this area. You can either fly to the port town of Labuan Bajo, on Flores (our choice), or take a 4 day boat trip from the island of Lombok, just to the east of Bali, where you can visit the islands en route. Starting from Labuan Bajo, depending on what boat you take, it is either a long, slow journey on a little wooden boat out to the Park, or a bit of a wild fast one with the odd wave that crashes in soaking everyone (we got to experience both of these!)

Seeing the dragons up close is both exhilarating, and slightly unsettling. We took two day trips, so we saw them on both Komodo Island, and Rinca Island. On both tours, you walk along the paths with two guides, one in front, one in back, who both carry large, long sticks in case they need to fend off the dragons (seriously). You can actually get quite close to the komodos, but the guides do a good job of keeping an eye out on how they are moving. Apparently the key is to always be part of a group, and to stay close to the group, because they are more likely to attack when one is alone. Words to live by! Literally! It is fascinating to watch them move; such deliberate heavy, wide swinging of their limbs from front to back to propel them forward - these dragons mean business. (Although, once we saw one scratching its head against a tree which was very sweet - just like a cute cat or dog!) To counter this sweetness, it needs to be said that they also offer this deep, throaty hiss when they encounter other dragons that they are not happy with - and this is quite chilling. We left both islands with all of our tour group present and with all limbs in tact, so - success! Both of these boat trips include stops at other islands and snorkelling spots, and we loved checking out the gentle, green rolling hills of the surrounding islands, particularly on beautiful Padar Island. Now in volcanic Indonesia, we are being treated to an entirely new, exquisite landscape.

Another exciting feature of this area of Indonesia, is the presence of manta rays. Particularly in the aptly named, "Manta Alley" diving/snorkelling area. The waters here are famous for their strong currents, and so one needs to just sort of float through the alley in the current without effort and keep eyes peeled for the rays. Troy spotted one while down near the bottom of the sea, and Clare was stunned when a huge ray swam right towards her near the surface before making a quick change in direction, and floating off. Gobsmacked! The rays apparenty like to hang out here because they need large amounts of water to move through their gills, and here they get to put out the least amount of effort, by just letting the current move them around. Smart rays! Clare also saw two black-tipped reef sharks, so she can finally move into the "I saw sharks while underwater!" category with Troy.

Back in the real world of life circumstances, Clare had a bad earache for a few days which was a bit of a downer, BUT, her brilliant sister-in-law, Carrie, wisely left some medicated ear drops with us upon departure from Thailand, so we were saved. Ear much better now! And our flight was cancelled the day we were supposed to fly out back to Bali due to bad weather nearby, but this culminated in the airline putting us up at a very nice hotel for the night, one much more expensive than we ever would have paid, until we could leave the next day. All in all, it was a pricey experience to get to the island, and participate in all the activities there, but we are happy to have jumped at this incredible opportunity.