Labuan Bajo & the Komodos

9th September 2008

Having arrived at Labuan Bajo last Tuesday (2nd) we anchored a little south of the town out from the Eco Resort and a place called the Dive Club. That night we went ashore and had dinner at the Dive Club where Dave also managed to get his dive bottles refilled. The Dive Club is owned by a German couple and although having to wait for quite awhile for our meal we did have a lovely one - probably the best since being in Indonesia. Main, desert and 4 bottles of Bintang came to about $NZ22. The next day we went into the town to have a look around and get one or two things at the local supermarket. Had a nice lunch in the town, costing under $10 and got back to our yachts mid afternoon. Decided to skip all the cultural dancing etc. for the official welcome and arrived at that at 5.30pm in time for the Official welcome (which went on for an hour) and then we were served dinner - a smorgasbord meal of all local food. Most of it was quite nice. Except for a dish that had dried fish - they were the little tiny fish and they felt like bones - terrible things but the peanuts with the dish were lovely.

Thursday (4th) we got a taxi from the Eco Resort to take us to the market, which is quite away from the town, where we restocked our fruit and vege supplies and then got a bemo back to the resort. Once the supplies were on board Janine, Garth & us went with another Dave on his boat Sahula to anchor off the town and Dave and Garth helped him and Brian on Galiano (NZ) to do fuel and water runs. Janine, Brenda (Galiano) & I walked the town (main street being approx. 2km) and went to the internet café. I haven't downloaded any more photos on the web site as the computers in the internet cafes are full of viruses so don't want to risk getting any in my memory stick, so have to wait until I can use my own computer with maybe a wireless connection. We finally met up with the men folk a few hours later and had another cheap lunch in town. That night 7 of us had another lovely meal at the Dive Club.

Next morning I woke at 4am with the Bali belly and even though I took the recommended diarrhoea bomb it did not stop the vomiting which finally stopped at 7pm that night. However, Dave and Catala still up anchored and we headed off down to Rincah Island but unfortunately we were about 20 minutes late for the right tide to go through the Molo Strait to the bottom of Rincah Island so we ducked into a little bay out of the current for the night where we had a nice calm anchorage. Catala felt it was too deep for them so they headed back to the Park Headquarters near the top of Rincah. Needless to add Dave had to do everything on his own as I spent the day in bed.

Woke up next morning feeling considerably better but still with a funny stomach (which I still have) and headed off down the Molo Strait with the right current and anchored at the bottom of Rincah between it and Nusa Kode where we met up once again with Purnama and Destiny 111. Didn't spot any Komodo dragons on the beach that afternoon or evening but next morning (Sunday) saw plenty and managed to get some quite good photos. Also saw monkeys on the beach. Unfortunately Dave got the Bali belly in the early hours of the morning, but not nearly as bad as me and once I gave him the diarrhea bomb he felt better, although very weak and faint with exertion and still does a bit. We did have a very windy night in this anchorage and Purnama and Destiny dragged in the night and we started too early in the morning but I was up and when we re anchored found we had a great big lump of coral around the chain. After lunch the three of us headed up the West Coast for 13 miles to a place called Teluk Ginggo. A lovely big bay with lots of nice anchorages. Had a lovely sail up with just the genoa which was not even fully out and at times reached 8.6 knots. Saw more dragons on the beach and quite a lot of other wild life.

The Komodo Dragon is the world's largest lizard and there are less than 2500 of them and can only be found in the Komodo National Park and western and northern Flores. They can reach 3 metres in length and weigh as much as 90kgs. They are predators as well as scavengers and will attack deer, buffalo etc. Injured prey often escape, only to die later of infection.

Yesterday morning (Monday 8th) Catala and Sahula arrived in and as I had made muffins we had all the boats here for morning coffee and muffins. As we wanted to have the right current for going up the Linta Strait and the time was right, Purnama, Destiny and us up anchored at 12.30pm and sailed (and at times motor sailed) 20 miles to a beautiful island just north of Komodo Island called Gili Lawa Laut. We arrived there at about 5.30pm and Te Wai Pounamu (NZ) were the only other yacht in there. We all ended up on the beach having drinks and nibbles, although I am still on the non alcoholic stuff.

We went snorkeling soon after breakfast this morning and then moved around to the next bay and went snorkeling with manta rays - quite an awesome sight and now we are on our way to another supposedly lovely island called Gili Banta. Although Gili Lawa Laut is a lovely bay, quite a swell comes in and the boats roll, so hence the moving on. No wind, so are motoring.