When we visited Indonesia 10 years ago we struck Komodo off the options list because it was so remote – to see the dragons requires a boat trip, ideally a live aboard, plus quite a bit of patience. Even we appreciated that it was not an ideal location for a holiday with a 5 month old.

The stars aligned this time: James loves all animals and is going through a reptile phase, we can (generally) trust him to be on a boat and not fall overboard, he was super keen to see Komodo dragons in the wild following a school Komodo project and he loves spending time in the sea.

Wanting to make the most of the national park we quickly chose a 3 day live aboard giving us chance to see the dragons but also the wonderful sea life around this part of the world. The Komodo National Park protects the dragons whose numbers are now thankfully broadly stable at around 3,500, though they do remain endangered, the park also preserves amazing marine life and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Never one to think things through too carefully I hadn’t considered the reality of being at sea for 3 days and put from my mind the unfortunate “vomit comet” incident from last year’s Easter holiday (Cornwall to Isles of Scilly lovely day trip NOT!!!!!!).

In the spirit of Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy (James and I have just finished this), I’m going to get to the point on the vomit thing, rather than withhold to create suspense. The reality is so extreme I can just get on with it.

Good news. James and I were not sea sick.

Bad news. James was sick ALL OVER the floor of the plane on the runway before taking off, flying out to Komodo. What kind of stupid plane doesn’t have sick bags!

James is fine btw but we had a horrid flight (as did several close by passengers 🙈🙊🙉) and we were concerned for the return of Bali-belly…this is not our first rodeo – it would of course put a stop to our Komodo trip.

Better or worse, you decide, this was actually caused by a rogue chocolate brownie in the airport hiding a few walnuts, which he is allergic too. We watched him closely as he has only a mild allergy and since he recovered quickly we didn’t provide any medicine. Turns out this was quite a mistake to make and his stomach wanted rid of the walnuts several hours later.

Our AI travel best friend helped us figure out the cause, but then put us on high alert by telling us he’d had a secondary allergic response and needed close monitoring overnight. Whilst likely an overreaction, I bunked in with James so I could regularly check on his breathing, an action which annoyed James greatly when he woke the following morning and found his mum there.

We were all therefore incredibly relieved when James sprang out of bed the following morning declaring he was ready for dragons and snorkelling. Phew!!

We’d carefully chosen our live aboard to minimise the chances of karaoke parties, which apparently are quite a thing. Happily we were paired up with two Dutch families with nearly grown up kids, who were awesome fellow boat passengers. We’ll even forgive them causing the karaoke death of Bohemian Rhapsody on the final night 🤣😬😳!!!

The boat was lush. We had a balcony over the rear of the ship, offering a gorgeous shaded spot to chill and enjoy the view. The top deck was a sun terrace and bean bags were placed at the front of the ship for an easy relax and snooze. Food was amazing with enough French fries to keep James happy, although we were rather more careful than usual about the risk of nuts…funny that!

Our 3 day trip consisted of Komodo dragons, lots of snorkelling with turtles and stingrays, jumping from the boat, looking for baby reef sharks, short sunset hikes and bat watching (all 10,000 of them!). Plus of course cruising along carefree, enjoying seeing a truly unique part of the world.

If John were writing this blog he would tell you that from crossing between Bali and Komodo we have passed the Wallace line, though disappointingly for him once again this was by air. Basically strong currents and a deep trench remained through the ice age keeping these two pieces of land separate and so despite close proximity this is the point where animals and plants materially differ between mammals to the north west and marsupials to the south east. Almost no animals cross this line – not even birds!

So, it was amazing to be here and so see such beautiful natural wildlife. But it was also busy…high winds hit and one of the main park straights was closed for a portion of the trip. That meant more tourists than usual in the same area. We’re not talking Disneyland busy (not that I’ve been) nor Ubud either but it was busier than we might like.

A detour to a small island known for its black tip reef sharks had become a nursery for a crowd of tourists who didn’t know how to snorkel. Imagine the noise they made when some of them spotted sharks in the water 🤣🤣.

Sunset hikes on islands were at times less peaceful than we might have liked and one evening I thought we may as well have been on board a neighbouring Chinese rave ship given how the noise carried over water. We could actually see the people onboard bopping up and down to the crazy disco music!!!

Taking 3 days at sea also curtailed the options for exercise, which frankly was rather blissful. Though on the last day John and I took the opportunity to swim to a local beach – maybe 300m away from our boat. Usually we would take the small speed boat, but since James was now pretty proficient on a paddle board he would paddle and we would swim alongside. Or so we thought, as the current swiftly took James away to the right of the island and left us swimming after him with rather more urgency that we had planned. Never fear though, our new Dutch friends on the boat spotted this and sent the speed boat driving to check on him. James’ response to all of this when he finally arrived on the island was “I beat you!” It seems he was in an invisible race and was completely oblivious to the fact that he was being swept away and giving his parents a better than expected swim workout!

Rinca Island was our destination for the big Komodo visit and we happily arrived ahead of the day-trippers from the mainland.

I still don’t really know how to write about the dragons. We knew we would have a hard time spotting them in the wild, plus it was mating season where the dragons are busy with…erm…other things. We had also heard rumours of the odd Komodo dragon being placed strategically near the rangers station, drugged up to enable tourists to get the desired insta shot.

The reality was a modest walk around the forest, where we were lucky enough to spot 8-10 dragons. And honestly, these lizards are extraordinary. Forget for a second that they’re cannibals (yes, they eat their own young) and that the females can reproduce without males – they’re just otherworldly creatures full stop. They lumber around like they’ve got all the time in the world, then suddenly move terrifyingly fast when they want to 😳. They taste the air with these absurdly long tongues, flicking them out constantly, and every so often one would crack its jaw open wide like it was about to breathe fire. Happy to report: it cannot.

Our guide was from the local town – a 6 hour walk from the park, working 10 days on/off leaving his family at home, working for no salary – only board and lodgings. If you’re wondering why he would do that, the opportunity to learn to speak English and work with tourists was so beyond his wildest dreams that this opportunity was a major achievement for him. He shared with us that David Attenborough spent 5 days in his family house during 7 months of filming on the island. When I told him that Sir David is a major celeb in our house and our country he was visibly delighted.

We believe the dragons hang around the tourist trail in bigger numbers because, well, there’s food there to tempt them — fair enough, really. They’re wild animals living out in rugged, remote terrain, and tourists only get one day to try and spot these amazing creatures. On balance, I’m fine with it: tourism keeps the national park going, the dragons are still roaming pretty freely, and the overall population stays protected.

Komodo has been a real highlight of our Indonesia adventure so far. Part of this was for sure seeing Komodo dragons in the wild, made even more special by living on such an amazing boat for a few days with great company.

Sad as we are to leave we are excited for the next part of our trip – revisiting Lombok and journeying on to the Gili Islands.