Wednesday 16 September 2015

After a truncated night Monday we beat feet (day sails only as there is too much fishing related crap in the water for darkness) to Labuan Bajo (this isn't Spanish, they pronounce the Js), just east of Komodo Island, arriving Wednesday afternoon - some sailing, lots of motoring. Quick trip into town to arrange diving Saturday and buy a few crackers and such, then later for excellent dinner at Made in Italy restaurant. Menus written only in English and Italian - no Indonesian food. Huh. Expect Bali will have some of that too.

Got a closer look at one-banger putt-putts in a water taxi over to town. They're started with a crank by spinning a very heavy flywheel then closing the compression. They can be kept at minimum run with only a pop every second or two. Direct drive to the propeller. She goes or she don't. Coming in for a landing entails aiming at the target, slowing down, shutting down then hoping for the best. There's always a pole guy at the bow for error recovery. Built of thick, heavy wood the boats are long, narrow and weigh far too much to float.

Thursday

Nobody got eaten so it was a good day out with the Komodo dragons. Finding one walking down the steep hillside 5 meters over our heads onto our pathway before we even got to the park office was pretty interesting. Only thing that could have been more amusing is if he'd said "boo!" before being sighted. This is an example where you feel more comfortable knowing you can outrun at least one of your local party, although it wouldn't have taken him much of a jump to just land on someone. Biggest lizards on Earth, they are incredibly gnarly and prefer carrion, but will eat anything including their own young and each other. They have made few inroads into the pet market.

Jack