I anticipated with baited breath what
lay around the next turn! Steely blue
waters and lush green hills interspersed with stretches of brown earth brought
home the immensity of what surrounded me! Eerie and beautiful calm all around threatened
to break through any moment!
I was getting a taste of ‘Flores’,
an Indonesian island unique in many senses.
Stunningly beautiful Indian ocean,
rare ‘carnivorous’ Komodo dragons, corals of different colours, and snippets of
local and unique history will make your travel here worthwhile and will make
you want to come back again.
Labuanbajo, a small coastal fishing
village is a good hosting point to go around Flores. The first thing that strikes as you land at
Komodo airport (even the airport is named after Komodo dragon J) in Labuanbajo, is its proximity
to the sea. You feel as if you are landing on sea – the way you feel when you
are landing Ngurah Rai airport in Bali. The smallness of the airport is the second
thing that strikes you. It literally is a few rooms big and stays locked up (literally
with locks) when flights are not taking off or landing.
As you start spending sometime in
Labuanbajo you start getting more of a sense of what all makes this island unique.
I came across tree shapes, tree types,
and flower types I had never seen before. Maybe it is because of Flores being
below ‘Wallace line’ J (do some reading on Alfred Russel Wallace and his work in
Malaysian Archipelago). I noticed that the features of the people around were
less Indonesian like and more Australasian like – broad foreheads, high cheek
bones, darker, etc. Indian Ocean drew me in – dark, ‘mirror’ like, and opaque
blue. I was initially apprehensive of but finally enjoyed eating ‘king sized’
Bintang/Flores bananas.
A bit of trivia about ‘Flores’.
Flores was discovered by Portuguese sailors.
They named island ‘Flores’ (flower in Portugues) as the surrounding Indian
Ocean is full of corals that impart to the ocean colours of different hues. I
noticed different shades of blue, green, pink, yellow, and violet in various parts
of Ocean. So Flores was for a long time a Portuguese island. But then it
changed hands to Dutch. As per local history, Flores was supposedly sold by
Portuguese to Dutch (and that too by local Portuguese administration without
permission of Portuguese government).
The Indian Ocean around Flores is
intriguing. At most places it looks like an unbroken glass of deep blue water. Water shines due to sunlight but it is mostly stunningly
opaque. It changes in colour where the corals are present. But wait till time you get further into Ocean
and you will be up for surprises. You will see form and shape of waterscape
changing. I saw series of whirlpools. I saw many different streams of water,
possibly signaling to presence of strong and different currents here. I saw
places where water was bubbling up J. All this while my boat traversed in between low lying
hills on either side chugging slowly towards Rinca and Komodo islands.
I could see Rinca island from
distance. Soon our boat was flanking island. I peered at it waiting with bated
breath to sight the Komodo dragon whenever I could see a glimpse of patch of
brown earth in between the dense vegetation.
A bit of trivia about Komodo
dragons. The movie ‘King Kong and Godzilla’ is inspired by Komodo dragons. These
dragons are giant carnivorous lizards (and hence have lizard like tongues) –
and have a history of attacking and eating men too. Rinca and Komdo islands are only places in world
where these dragons (numbering around 5000) still exist. They supposedly are
only remaining linkages with old world dinosaurs. The forest rangers in these islands are hired
by Indonesian government and they live with their families in the villages
there. They are not allowed to kill dragon and can only beat it back with
sticks if attacked. Amazing dedication to saving an almost extinct species.
Soon we had docked at Rinca
islands! While walking the forest trail
with the rangers we came across full body skeletons of different animals –
attacked and eaten by the dragons. Supposedly only body part dragons don’t eat
is the hair. So if you are unlucky enough to be attacked, you might disappear
unnoticed. I was not sure whether to feel comforted by the presence of the
ranger – what exactly could he do if we were attacked. I was scared and excited
at the same time. Suddenly I saw a number of dragons right infront of me. I
froze still and breathed in easy to calm down.
I had heard they look lazy but
pounce on you without warning. They did look lazy, almost asleep. But a look at
their front limbs, claws, and powerful jaws warned me of danger of getting too
close. I managed to zoom in enough to get a close shot with my camera. But my
heart was thumping and I was sweating. I remembered the instructions given to
me by ranged – run zig-zag if chased by dragon and climb a tree. Dragons find
it difficult to run zig-zag and can’t climb trees. I had told ranger that I don’t
know how to climb trees. He had answered calmly I will learn it immediately if
chased by dragon – he had seen such cases before. J
Well I spent about a quarter of an
hour with the dragons; all the time alert and observant. That quarter hour is photographed
in my mind.
Later in the day at sunset,
further away from Rinca island, I saw thousands of bats migrate to Rinca island
from Kalong island. The Indian ocean at sunset looks stunning. Strange shaped
clouds, surrounding hills, and play of light in the sky and the water makes for
an overpowering image – not to be missed. I sat at the bow of the boat looking
at the sun set, while we slowly trudged back home.
I have heard somewhere that you
should never underestimate Indian Ocean. With about an hour left to hit the
coast, I found out why. The winds picked up and water became rougher. I felt we
were taking an eternity to reach the harbor while our boat crashed from one
wave to the other and swayed around. The sailor’s gentle and confident smile
and reassurance that we will make it back to the port calmed me down.
I did made it back, with a bagful
of unforgettable memories and experiences.
-
Sourav
