KOMODO ISLAND – SLAWI BAY

INDONESIA

Tuesday, February 25, 2025, 6 AM, Temperature 81 Degrees, Humidity 81%, W - 6.7 mph

The picture at the top of this blog is from the HAL Excursion Brochure, we didn’t take it!

Komodo Island is part of the Lesser Sunda chain in the 17,000+ islands of the Indonesia archipelago. Komodo Island is best known for its namesake Komodo Dragons. The islanders called the lizards Ora, which means land crocodiles. The name Komodo Dragon comes from a 1927 book, Dragon Lizards of Komoto, by American Naturalist W. Douglas Burden. In 1915, the Dutch government (the Island was then under Dutch control) issued a regulation to protect the lizards, outlawed sport hunting, and limited the number taken for scientific study. In 1960, Komodo National Park was established, which includes Komodo, Padar, and Rinca Islands, as well as 26 smaller ones. In 1991, the park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site and a Man and Biosphere Reserve. The park is scheduled to be temporarily closed to tourists by mid-2025 to help the park’s ecosystem recover from the impact of tourism. The Dragons in the Park are generally overfed and lazy but wild, and up in the hills, they are responsible for several deaths of people every year.

As we came into the Harbor, the golden dome of a building in Komodo Village glistened in the sun, but cruisers did not have an opportunity to visit there; they were restricted to HAL or independent tours of the National Park. We chose not to go ashore in Komodo. Although it turned out to be a perfect day, Komodo has a reputation as a “challenging” Tender port. The pier is long, the stone steps are steep, and most importantly, we really had no interest in the Dragons.