Here be dragons

When I was woken up at 7am, we were already docked at the entrance of Komodo Island ready to see the Komodo Dragons. We were the first tourists to arrive and the early start meant it wasn't too hot so we had more chance of seeing lots of dragons. On the walk to collect our tickets, we saw a small one not too far from the path. We were given a brief talk by the park rangers (who each carried a long stick to keep us safe) and then started our walk away from the ranger cabins.

We quickly saw one, then another, then more started to appear from the distance through the trees, one by one. They're well camouflaged but their size gives them away. The larger ones are between two and three metres long. They can be aggressive but from what I saw, visitors are extremely safe as most of the lizards are sleeping or walking around slowly. I got the feeling that the rangers exaggerate the stories for fun.

The Komodos also live on the nearby island of Rinca, which was our next stop after lunch. It was extremely hot and we only saw them relaxing underneath one of the ranger cabins. On our hike to a viewpoint we saw a buffalo and some monkeys though. We had one last swim and snorkel, then made our way to our final stop, the town of Labuan Bajo.

We arrived at the harbour at about 5pm but for some strange reason, we docked amongst the cargo ships and had to clamber across two boats full of bricks and equipment. I walked with the Dutch couple to a new hostel I'd read about and I booked straight in to the dorm for my first real shower for days. The Dutch guys wanted a private room so they left to find somewhere else. I had a drink in the cafe area of the hostel, with a nice view out to sea for the sunset and sat with an Australian girl called Lexi and an Egyptian diving instructor called Alex.

After the very basic and repetitive food on the boat, I had a real craving for something different. I opted for pizza after being recommended a nice Italian restaurant. On my way back to my hostel, I ran in to the Spanish and French guys from the boat and sat with them at the local food market but I was so knackered that I didn't last long before I had to retire to bed. A real bed with A/C and sheets and a pillow. As much as I love being at sea, it was great being back on land.