Who knew you could visit Komodo Dragons in their natural habitat in Indonesia? I had no idea until we were putting our summer travel plans together and my boyfriend mentioned it was something he always wanted to do!
Komodo dragons are the largest of the lizard family growing up to 10ft long and weighing up to 150Ibs. Pretty huge!! It has been claimed they have a venomous bite and prey on birds, invertebrates and mammals.
After planning for a few months, we finally ticked this one off our bucket list and let me tell you it was definitely one to remember!
We flew from Bali to the island of Flores, where we stayed one night in an area called Labuan Bajo, in a beautiful tree house style accommodation over looking the sea for approx £15.
The next day we were picked up early by our guide and taken to a boat where we were going to spend the next three days on the water visiting four different islands.
The boat tour definitely made it feel like an adventure, the boat was basic, it had bedrooms and a top deck for sunbathing. We had three crew onboard including our own chef who cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner for us each day. The food was lovely, rice and meats, salads, fruits and even fish.
The sunsets were out of this world and star gazing at night was stunning.
In the morning we stopped at Komodo National Park, which is home to more than 4,000 Dragons. We hiked through the island with a professional guide for a few hours on the look out, I was slightly apprehensive but it wasn’t as scary as my mind built up.
We were on the island during the mating season and came across a nesting area with some empty shells, where baby Dragons had hatched and moved on.
Nonetheless on our trek back to the entrance of the island, we managed to get very close to two dragons!
We took some risky photos behind them, being as quiet as possible so we didn’t disturb them. My boyfriend is far too adventurous and got extremely close!
Island Protection
Indonesian authorities this year were deciding to close the island to tourism to protect the animals and their habitat. They said this was needed to stop interference with the mating and hatching processes of the Komodo Dragon population. However they have now decided against this closure but instead introduced a $1000 membership scheme as opposed to the original $10 fee, to make it a more exclusive destination from 2020.