AGeoJO
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Starting out in Australia, I did some island hopping in the eastern part of Indonesia last February, hence my absence for several weeks during that time. One of the famous Lesser Sunda Islands, is Komodo island for its naturally occurring komodo dragons and the other one is Bali for its devotion to Hinduism and culture. In addition to Komodo island, these giant lizards live on a few other smaller neighboring islands and nowhere else in the world.
These giant lizards bring in tourists and with them, of course, tourist $$ and they are therefore protected. But even before that komodos that are called “land crocodiles” by locals live quite in harmony for who knows how long. They live in groups in the wild but I have seen individual lizards on that island. I saw one lounging on the beach not too far away from the walkway coming from/away from the cruise ship. Although they blend pretty well in their surrounding but their size makes them easy to spot.
Their saliva contains infectious bacteria and yes, they are drooling pretty much all the time.. Supposedly, they can out run an adult. So, when an adult komodo came charging at me while I was kneeling down to get a low angle, I got intimidated. My instinct told me to get up and to move back fast. However, the “ranger” I hired, just stood calmly next to me and assured me that everything was okay. He had a long stave with with a split end. He put that end in front of that beast and it was enough to startle that lizard. So, fortunately, I didn’t make the local evening news then  . All the park rangers carry that kind of long staves. Apparently, they are quite effective in stopping or at least, slowing down the giant lizard.
There is the famous pink beach On the other side of the island. There are no komodos here but snorkeling or simply playing around in water felt good on a tropical island like this one.The pink sand color is a mixture of broken down red coral, mixed with reddish shells of foraminifiers and regular whittish shells of marine living organism..
Thank you for stopping by and please feel free to leave any comment.
Joshua
#1 - Charging at me…
ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II + 1.4X Teleconverter lens 280mm f/4.0 1/250s 10000 ISO 0.0 EV
#2 - Sticking out its tongue while drooling
ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II + 1.4X Teleconverter lens 280mm f/4.0 1/250s 8000 ISO 0.0 EV
#3 - Close enough to make me nervous…
ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II + 1.4X Teleconverter lens 249mm f/4.0 1/250s 10000 ISO 0.0 EV
#4 - Young adult
ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens 200mm f/2.8 1/500s 5000 ISO 0.0 EV
#5 - Young adult
ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens 200mm f/2.8 1/250s 1250 ISO 0.0 EV
#6 - Veteran
ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens 200mm f/2.8 1/500s 8000 ISO 0.0 EV
#7 - Checking out the surrounding
ILCE-7RM5 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens 200mm f/2.8 1/250s 1000 ISO 0.0 EV
#8 - Lounging on the beach, the surf water is just out of the cropped composition
ILCE-1 FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II lens 176mm f/2.8 1/1600s 100 ISO 0.0 EV
#9 - Pink beach on Komodo island
ILCE-7RM5 FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II lens 24mm f/8.0 1/400s 100 ISO 0.0 EV
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Great work.
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I wish I could see it as it must look cool. 