April 9, 2009
After a couple of more sea days we arrived at a strange little island that is actually part of Indonesia. But I need to make a slight diversion first, because something unusual happened during one of the sea days while we were off the coast of Australia. Ronnie put her name in for a drawing at the Boutique because there was a representative on from a jeweler on board who specialized in opals. We saw opals all over the place in Darwin in particular. You had to be present to win, and Ronnie almost didn’t go to the drawing, but at the last minute she decided to go because she needed to buy a couple of things at the Boutique. So, they drew a name, and no, it wasn’t Ronnie’s. But the person was not present so they drew another. That person was not present, so they drew another. This happened a couple of more times and then they asked Ronnie to draw a name. She declined so one of the sales people at the boutique, a young man named Alex who has been sweet to us drew a name. He looked at and then came and showed it to Ronnie. She let out a scream that you could hear for quite a distance. Everyone thought something terrible had happened, but no, it wasn’t that kind of a scream. You may have guessed that Alex indeed had picked her name.
Back to the island. It is called Komodo Island and it is home of one of the strangest creatures in the world today. The Komodo dragon is not really a dragon at all, but a huge lizard. And I mean these things are big, weighing many hundreds of pounds and up to 20 feet in length. We took a tender to the island after lunch since the ship arrived around noon. We were in group number one, and Ronnie was petrified that the dragons would go after her, so she was close to the ranger the whole time. Of course he only had this long stick to ward off the dragons, and we were not convinced that was enough to deter one of these larger creatures. A passenger had to tell us the story of a crew member who got too close to the dragons a few years ago and was eaten alive . In addition, being close to the equator, Komodo is quite hot, and we were dressed for the heat. Of course someone had to tell us that shorts were not a good idea because of scorpions along the trail. We both had shorts on.
Then when we were walking along the trail the guide had to tell us that the baby dragons actually lived up in the trees for the first few years to avoid being eaten by the adults (yes, they are cannibals as well as carnivores). So we walked along, constantly looking at sides of the trail for scorpions, looking up at the trees for baby dragons, and of course scanning the area for any adult dragons. Then the ranger would stop and tell us something about the flora and fauna. We would just as soon he kept on. We finally arrived at treed section where there a number of rangers with sticks and a small rope behind which were, you guessed it, some dragons. A big sign said “Quiet!” We watched them for a while and one actually got up to move. One of our group let out a scream (What happened to quiet?, but it was not about the dragons – she saw some beautiful bird.
Back on the trial they handed out some cold bottles of water. I could tell how hot Ronnie was so I put the bottle next to her neck to cool her off. Big mistake. Blood curling scream! I mean you could hear this for miles. She was sure a dragon had dropped out of the trees on her! Aside from that, no attacks by dragons or scorpions. But we did have a different kind of attack. At the end of the trail was a kind of market set up where, strangely enough they sold pearls. However, they didn’t just sell them: they were yelling at you, reaching for you, etc. We really did feel attacked. Ronnie and I had gotten separated, but when we found each other we settled on a couple of vendors and did hard bargaining for a few inexpensive pearls (light and small in the suitcase!). All in all, quite a day on Komodo island.
After a couple of more sea days we arrived at a strange little island that is actually part of Indonesia. But I need to make a slight diversion first, because something unusual happened during one of the sea days while we were off the coast of Australia. Ronnie put her name in for a drawing at the Boutique because there was a representative on from a jeweler on board who specialized in opals. We saw opals all over the place in Darwin in particular. You had to be present to win, and Ronnie almost didn’t go to the drawing, but at the last minute she decided to go because she needed to buy a couple of things at the Boutique. So, they drew a name, and no, it wasn’t Ronnie’s. But the person was not present so they drew another. That person was not present, so they drew another. This happened a couple of more times and then they asked Ronnie to draw a name. She declined so one of the sales people at the boutique, a young man named Alex who has been sweet to us drew a name. He looked at and then came and showed it to Ronnie. She let out a scream that you could hear for quite a distance. Everyone thought something terrible had happened, but no, it wasn’t that kind of a scream. You may have guessed that Alex indeed had picked her name.
Back to the island. It is called Komodo Island and it is home of one of the strangest creatures in the world today. The Komodo dragon is not really a dragon at all, but a huge lizard. And I mean these things are big, weighing many hundreds of pounds and up to 20 feet in length. We took a tender to the island after lunch since the ship arrived around noon. We were in group number one, and Ronnie was petrified that the dragons would go after her, so she was close to the ranger the whole time. Of course he only had this long stick to ward off the dragons, and we were not convinced that was enough to deter one of these larger creatures. A passenger had to tell us the story of a crew member who got too close to the dragons a few years ago and was eaten alive . In addition, being close to the equator, Komodo is quite hot, and we were dressed for the heat. Of course someone had to tell us that shorts were not a good idea because of scorpions along the trail. We both had shorts on.
Then when we were walking along the trail the guide had to tell us that the baby dragons actually lived up in the trees for the first few years to avoid being eaten by the adults (yes, they are cannibals as well as carnivores). So we walked along, constantly looking at sides of the trail for scorpions, looking up at the trees for baby dragons, and of course scanning the area for any adult dragons. Then the ranger would stop and tell us something about the flora and fauna. We would just as soon he kept on. We finally arrived at treed section where there a number of rangers with sticks and a small rope behind which were, you guessed it, some dragons. A big sign said “Quiet!” We watched them for a while and one actually got up to move. One of our group let out a scream (What happened to quiet?, but it was not about the dragons – she saw some beautiful bird.
Back on the trial they handed out some cold bottles of water. I could tell how hot Ronnie was so I put the bottle next to her neck to cool her off. Big mistake. Blood curling scream! I mean you could hear this for miles. She was sure a dragon had dropped out of the trees on her! Aside from that, no attacks by dragons or scorpions. But we did have a different kind of attack. At the end of the trail was a kind of market set up where, strangely enough they sold pearls. However, they didn’t just sell them: they were yelling at you, reaching for you, etc. We really did feel attacked. Ronnie and I had gotten separated, but when we found each other we settled on a couple of vendors and did hard bargaining for a few inexpensive pearls (light and small in the suitcase!). All in all, quite a day on Komodo island.
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