Komodo August 2014, Komodo National Park

Komodo, being probably the single most famous national park of the entire Indonesian country, it needs no introduction. The national park consists of the larger part of the sea between Flores and Sumbawa, dozens of small islets and two larger islands, Komodo and Rinca. Both of the larger and two smaller islands host the main attraction of this national park: Komodo Dragons. Most tourist go to Rinca on a one day trip, as this is by far the cheapest option as Rinca is much closer to Flores (two hours by boat) than Komodo(four hours by boat). Unfortunately Komodo is much more interesting bird-wise than Rinca, as the forest on Rinca is almost gone, while it still remains on Komodo. Furthermore the viewing of Komodo Dragons on Rinca appears to be rather staged, compared to Komodo.

As most tourist go to Rinca it was difficult for us to find a payable option to go to Komodo. The cheapest option (around 1.200.000 IDR per person) is probably to join a two day Rinca-Komodo tour, however this includes numerous other stops. So in the tried to find a boat ourselves, but turned out to even more expensive (4.000.000 IDR for a two day tour to Komodo). In the end we found a boat for 2.500.000 IDR at Wanua Adventures, which would bring us very early in the morning to Komodo and would return in the afternoon. Some tourists were interested in sharing the costs, but as soon as they found out that our trip would not include snorkelling, they turned away. Later we found out that all prices are probably rigged and a fair price for a one day tour to Komodo should be around 1.500.000 IDR for the boat…

We left Labuanbajo at 6:15 and arrived at Komodo around 9:00, which was earlier than we had anticipated. On the way we saw few species to write home about. Only a single Lesser Frigatebird next to some Black-naped and Greater Crested Terns. Once we were on the island and paid our entrance fees (20.000 IDR per person), camera fees (50.000 IDR per camera) and guide fees (80.000 IDR per guide) and got started. You can do several treks on Komodo: short, medium, long and adventure treks. We opted for a long trek to enjoy the islands nature properly, but unfortunately as soon as we started our guide explained to us that if a trek takes longer than two hours one has to pay the guide again! In the end we just trekked two hours over the island, but fortunately we still managed to see almost all the species we wanted to see. However in hindsight the guide probably was just grumpy because he might miss his lunch, so I suppose that it is better for the guides (as for the birds) it might be better to do long treks in the early morning. 

When we finally started walking I soon heard Yellow-crested Cockatoos and not much later we enjoyed sights of a perched individual munching away on tamarinds! I worried a bit about this species as several people state that this species can be difficult here as soon as it gets hot, but luckily we had no trouble with them. Not much later we bumped into three adult Komodo Dragons and two juveniles as well! We could enjoy good views of all of them, drinking and sun bathing. While we viewed these giants many Green Junglefowls ran about, a species that later proved to be incredibly common and easy to view here. We enjoyed crippling views of many colourful cocks and some drab hens. The introduced Timor Deer and Wild boars are equally common and approachable, which is nice but also creates a zoo-like atmosphere...

Adult female Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis)

Juvenile Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodoensis)

A Yellow-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulpurea) enjoying tamarind fruits

Chickens can be so stunning! Here a male Green Junglefowl (Gallus varius)

We walked further into the forest and the amount of other tourist became less and less as did the zoo like atmosphere as the animals started to behave more naturally. We enjoyed good views of Wallacaen Cuckooshrike, Barred Dove and Wallacaen Drongo here as well as several flocks consisting of Rusty-breasted Whistler, Black-naped Monarch, Yellow-spectacled and Lemon-bellied White-eye. A Beach Thick-knee that flew over remained heard only. We also got brilliant views of a pair of Orange-footed Scrubfowl, a species I was looking forward to see a lot. A Flying Dragon (Draco boschmai) was caught and this enabled us to see its “wings” properly. After this our “long” trek was almost finished but first we checked an Acacia in front of the guest house, where Mollucan Scops-owls roost normally, but unfortunately many branches of this tree have been cut and the owls have not returned ever since. We checked some other trees but no owls were to be found.

A pair of Orange-footed Scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt)

Male Wallacean Cuckooshrike (Coracina personata)

We started our return journey around 11:30, much earlier than anticipated, but luckily the journey turned out to be the most entertaining part of the day! Our boat trip became a proper pelagic with at least six Bulwer’s Petrels and a single Red-necked Phalarope. However it was not the birds that made our journey worthwhile. It was the Cetaceans as two Common Bottlenose Dolphins, two pods of Spinner Dolphins and a single Risso’s Dolphin showed around our boat! Two Green Turtles were also enjoyed a lot and thanks to our lovely boat man who stopped the boat at the moment the finger pointed in some direction we managed to photograph some of these animals as well!

Bulwer's Petrel (Bulweria bulwerii)

Two individuals of a larger pod of Spinner Dolphins (Stenella longirostris)

I definitely would recommend visiting Komodo, as the wildlife watching on the way to and on the island can be exceptional. However it surely should be possible to get to the island in a cheaper way than we did. Perhaps avoiding the tourist agents and just walking into the harbour and asking boat captains themselves might be fairer (both for you and the boat captain). We suggest to use our lovely and very capable captain Ary (006281239583111), who normally works for Sunset tours (a different organisation than the one we booked this trip through, therefore I unfortunately don’t know their prices).