June 3rd, 2016

Day 64: Flores XP Dragon Tour – Day 1

For our trip to Komodo Island, Igor booked us on a 3-Day tour with Flores XP – a company started by two expats (from Spain & Italy) which has built a glamping facility on one of the islands close to Komodo & Rinca. We had a fantastic time – highly recommended!

We met Michael, the Spanish partner, at the Labuan Bajo wharf at 7:30AM to board our boat. There were 8 other tourists booked for the trip (only 7 showed up – one guy was missing) – we all made our introductions over breakfast & coffee, before the boat shoved off.

 

Meeting at the wharf – next to a huge shipment of bananas

 

Fandhy and Paul explaining our schedule for the day: snorkeling/diving before heading to our campsite

 

Ready for our Komodo Adventure

 

So many pretty boats in Flores!

Our first dive location was at Kanawa Island. We were so excited to get back in the water after our Great Barrier Reef certification a few weeks ago – plus diving is so affordable (USD$25/dive) we couldn’t resist! While we had been unfortunate enough to have rainy weather in Cairns, we had a perfectly clear sunny day in Flores – visibility was twice what we had before! The first reef was full of interesting sea life: we saw two sea turtles, a lobster, pufferfish, and even a cuttlefish which changed colors as it swam away!

We brought our old Nikon Cool Pix camera underwater with us. While it is only supposed to work down to 10m, we had used it throughout our trip on the Great Barrier Reef with no problem – it would turn on underwater up to 18m, but would simply give an error message that it couldn’t shoot. Yeah, apparently 20m is the “no go” limit. When Igor pulled out the camera at the bottom of the reef, it wouldn’t turn on and Lindsay could see the screen was bending inwards. When we returned to the surface we discovered that the water pressure had finally killed our camera, breaking the water seal. So no original pictures – just Google Images.

 

I swear – we saw all of these in the wild.

After a delicious fried chicken lunch, we stopped at our second dive location: the Mini Wall. This was Igor’s favorite dive location of everything we’ve done so far, and his first real, “Wow!” moment while diving. Before this, he thought there was no big difference between snorkeling and scuba diving – you see all the same fish, just with a different perspective. The Mini Wall changed all that – it was like exploring a fish city! In addition to a large assortment of tropical fish, we saw two Lionfish, a Crocodile Flathead Rockfish and Garden Eels.

 

All the fish we saw.

We headed over to the “Pirate’s Cove” late in the afternoon to get settled into our accommodations. When Igor originally booked the tour, we assumed we’d be in tents on the beach – the glamping set-up was a very pleasant surprise! After claiming our huts, the 9 tourists broke into the Bintangs our tour guides brought for sale, and enjoyed the sunset on our private beach. Just as the sun was hitting the horizon, we saw another boat pull up in the distance – it was our mystery 10^th guest! Apparently he had forgotten the day of the week and thought the trip was starting the next day (sadly, very easy to forget the days of the week when you’re traveling). We got him a Bintang and welcomed him to the group, filling him in on the day’s adventures. After a delicious fish dinner (our guides are pretty impressive cooks!), and another hour or so admiring the stars, we retired to our huts and fell asleep to the sound of gentle waves on the shore.

Heading back to our camping grounds

 

Pirate’s Cove! Arrr.

 

GLAMPING

 

New friends sharing some beers on the beach

 

BINTANG – the beer of Indonesia

 

A stellar sunset, and a clear night sky