After a few much needed days of relaxation and recuperation, we were on our way to embark on another adventure. We were picked up bright and early by the Perama bus, which whisked us off to the city of Mataram. While there, we did some last minute shopping and preparation for the adventure that was ahead of us. We stocked up on some snacks, drinks and a few other essentials, and were now ready for the three day boat journey that lay ahead of us. We were to take a boat, big enough for about 30 people, from the island of Lombok to the port town of Labuan Bajo, on the island of Flores which was approximately three days away. We were going to live, eat, drink and sleep on the boat while occasionally stopping to check out some of the sights along the way.
We boarded the boat, met the crew, fellow boat-mates, and Mr. Perama the owner of the tour company. We were quickly fed a delicious lunch and soon thereafter we docked at Perama Island, a private island owned by Mr. Perama. He and his organization have been working over several decades to re-habit the island with trees, shrubs, grasses and even beds of coral which were being beautifully brought back to life. At Perama Island, we spent the afternoon snorkelling in and around the coral and sea life that the Perama crew had planted themselves (at least Jono and Amanda did, Tim and Aimee had to sit this one out due to their injuries). We also walked around the island (it took about 45 minutes to walk around the entire thing), enjoyed a spectacular sunset and spent some time lounging in the hammocks. We feasted on a delicious buffet for dinner, and after dinner we sat around the campfire as a group and sang, and also learned an Indonesian dance!
Later on that night, we were back on board the boat, heading out away from Perama Island. We quickly found spots to sleep on the floor on the deck of the hull, while Jono and Tim on the roof of the boat. We were expecting the night to be difficult, but the weather and the ocean cooperated, and we all ended up having a decent sleep.
After breakfast the next morning, we anchored our boat in the middle of the ocean, and took our small dingy boats to another small island. Here we walked around, and also swam in a large saltwater lake. It was so salty, that we could actually just float around in it (a little like the Dead Sea, but because it wasn’t as salty we weren’t quite as buoyant). From there we made our way back to the ocean, where we did some more snorkelling and underwater exploration (again, Tim and Aimee couldn’t participate, as they were saving themselves for the greatest part of the adventure that was yet to come). The snorkelling here was magnificent, vast and expansive. We were able to see many interesting and beautiful corals and fish. After a lengthy swim, we were called back onto the boat, and were soon sailing away to our next destination. That destination ended up being a beach, which in all honesty wasn’t one of the more beautiful beaches we have ever seen. Aimee decided to skip out on this, and instead tried her hand at fishing. Although she wasn’t successful, she had a good time hanging out with the boat crew.
After the beach, we were back on board the boat having another delicious buffet dinner and soon after we were ready to hit the hay. This time, Aimee decided that she would be brave, and she headed upstairs to sleep next to the boys. Amanda however, was not as brave, and once again decided that the bottom deck was the place for her. And that was probably a good thing, as about ten minutes into the night she got sea sick, and had to take a few motion sickness tablets to make her feel better.
The night was going well until about 1:00am, when the crew suddenly woke Jono, Tim and Aimee from the roof and told them to get down to the hull below. They were really confused and disorientated and a little disbelieving, but followed the instructions nonetheless. And it was a good thing they did! Not more than ten minutes later, the boat was rocking back and forth like nothing we had ever experienced before. Water was coming in from all sides of the boat, and everyone was waking up wet and worried. We were currently passing through the Straights of Sape, one of the most turbulent ocean passages in all of Indonesia! Luckily, the weather and the ocean were not as bad as they could have been (the crew told us stories of being caught in swirling eddies with engine troubles that made our skin tingle), and a few hours later we made it out of the passage with everyone still intact.
We were all up early the next morning, albeit groggy from the night before, but nevertheless, we were ready for what we had come to see. We had made it to Komodo Island, and would soon be hunting the elusive Komodo Dragons (by camera of course!). We took boarded our dingy boats once again and quickly separated into two groups. It was time to see some Komodos!
Our group was the first into the bush. We looked hard for Komodos, and along the way we were able to spot some wild deer, some wild boar (very cool!), and some shadowy figures scurrying along ahead in the distance. About 40 minutes into our trek we began to fear that we might not see any Komodos (as the chance of seeing one on this trip is only about 50 %), however, right at the end of our hike, we found three hanging around the ranger’s station. Although this was awesome, we were hoping to see them in a more wild location (not next to the cafe!). Our luck soon changed though, as we saw another one off in the distance. As we approached (cautiously of course) we saw that the Komodo was actually stalking a deer, and we were lucky enough to see it run at the deer and try to attack. It was very cool, and we felt as though we definitely got our fill of the dragons.
After taking our photos of the Komodos, we were once again on our Perama boat. We sailed for a short while before we anchored again, this time at Red Beach, home to some of the best snorkeling that we had experienced on our previous trip to Indonesia. We jumped off the boat and swam to the beach, along the way encountering a beautiful sea turtle. We continued to snorkel around for about an hour. However, we were saddened by the fact that Red beach was no longer as beautiful as it once was, clearly due to obvious dynamite fishing.
Once again, we boarded the boat, and after lunch we were sailing to our final destination of Labuan Bajo. We made it there by nightfall, and settled in to out hotel. For dinner we went back to he Perama boat, where we ate and partied all night long.
The next morning we awoke with Amanda feeling the worst she had felt in a long time. Everyone else felt OK, but Amanda spent the entire day between the bed and the bathroom. We concluded that it must have been the strange fish that she ate on the boat the night before, and left her to get sorted out. Everyone else spent the day hanging out and watching movies, as there are very few things to do in Labuan Bajo. We were all happy that we only had to spend two days there, understanding that two days is probably two too many.
By day three, Amanda was almost back to herself, and we were packed up and ready to leave Flores and head back to Bali for a fun day full of surfing, shopping, dining and relaxing before flying out. However, as our flight delay went from 20 minutes to 4 hours we were starting to fear that we might not be back to Bali as early as we had hoped. After waiting the whole day for our plane (which was sitting right in front of us with a flat tire) we realized that we were going nowhere… fast. We had to spend another night in Labuan Bajo (this time the airline paid for it though). The next morning, we were up and at the airport really early, so early in fact, it wasn’t even open yet. We wanted to make sure that we got on the flight that day, as we had another international flight to catch later on that evening. Luckily, after about five hours of waiting, we boarded our plane headed for Bali. Praying that our aircraft would at least hold together until we disembarked we eventually made it safe and sound to the airport in Denpasar and spent about four crazy hours collecting our luggage, and shopping for some last minute gifts.
At the Denpasar airport, we ran into a bit of trouble with our tickets (purchased through CHEAPO-AIR) which made us almost miss our flight. Apparently CHEAPO-AIR had failed to let us know that our tickets did not include luggage and the people at the checkout were calculating the luggage cost to be 3X’s the price of the ticket! After a long time of arguing, we ended up paying him a bit, thinking that we would sort it all out when we got to our next stop, Australia!