Komodo Dragon Boat tour day 1

After waking about 5.30am we breakfasted on banana pancakes. Dave took the unordered chocolate pancake this am as I had it yesterday (quite nice too!) we were picked up at 7.30am and taken to the jetty ( via the airport which fortunately was not too far out of our way due to driver error). We loaded onto our boat, Salacia which was bigger than we had anticipated with 'relaxing'deck upstairs, sitting meals area downstairs with diving/snorkelling prep area at back and small combined toilet/shower area in between for quick rinse offs only. 

As we boarded the boat a local boy was using his thong to hold down a still wriggling colourful fish to reinsert the hook to carry the fish home.  Whilst they loaded up the boat with a whole fish; bags of ice and more than enough supplies for the 8 of us and 4 crew onboard the kids checked out the fish swimming around the jetty and the local kids pushed tyres with sticks along the jetty. 

The boys were quick to discover at our first snorkelling/diving spot that the toilet emptied into the water as they discovered one of the kids "turdles" floating by as they were jumping from the top deck into the water😖. That got them out of the water pretty quickly!😂

Will jumping off the top deck of the boat

We stopped at the first island, Kinawa where the 4 kids tootled off a little nervously with Edward,  one of the crew for some snorkelling with instructions not to touch anything and what to do if they came across the trigger fish, known to aggressively protect its nest and bite if threatened. Whilst we nervously received our diving instructions and signed our and our children's lives away with liability disclaimers! The kids saw a blue spotted feather tail Ray and a list of other fish including the notorious trigger fish whilst we did a staged training on dive basics and practised all the safety prerequisites. It was not a great dive but necessary to practise in the calm and safe conditions before we could do any further dives in better locations later in the day. We did however see a Hawkesbill turtle feeding and gracefully swim past, a special treat given this species of sea turtle is relatively uncommon. When we got back to the boat the kids were pretty chuffed with themselves and we enjoyed a lunch of fried chicken, veges and rice followed by some watermelon. There's plenty of tea and coffee on board and the coffee is locally grown and roasted and as Mikel, our Spanish dive master and part owner of the business explained is fantastic coffee when roasted properly and whilst I need sugar in coffee without milk, I am impressed and could take quite a liking to this coffee. 

The map of our trip. 

Day 1. Leave Labuan Bajo; lunch and snorkel/drive Kanawa Island; snorkel/dive at Mini Wall; arrive on camp island of Sebayar.

Day 2. Sebayar to 

Loh LIang on Komodo Island , lunch there whilst boat engine maintenance took place; snorkel at pink beach; back to arrive at Sebayar after dark

Day 3. Sebayar to Manta Point to snorkel with Manta rays; lunch and snorkel at Mawan then off to see more dragons at 

Loh Buaya on Rinca Island; then to Kalong to watch thousands of flying foxes head to Flores where they feed each night before returning to Kalong to roost during the day; arriving back in Labuan Bajo/Flores at 8.30ish that night where our driver was waiting to take us to our hotel (Waecicu Inn) down a rough, steep and windy road with very poor headlights!

After chilling for a while, the kids making themselves completely at home, we then headed to our next snorkelling/dive spot. David went snorkelling with the kids as he was still suffering from a painful left ear that refused to properly equalise following the last dive despite trying some suggested techniques and Sera, Dave and I heading off to the 'Mini Wall" for a fabulous dive spotting flame lion fish, lobster, lots of large schools of various sorts and amazing coral, clams and colourful fish. 

We then headed to our camping island, Berawa where our tents were already up and explored the shallows in search of sea horses (no luck) and enjoyed the sunset whilst our lovely dinner of grilled Trevalley and rice was prepared followed by yummy local bananas and tea and biscuits. Dave gave me some lessons on long exposure photography.  Whilst the kids spent all night collecting and racing hermit crabs they had named (Jaspers all being after Barcelona footy players) the adults swapped wildlife encounter stories with Mikel.

Being motored from the Salacia to our camping spot

Sunset on Sebayar 

Hermit crab collecting

A long exposure night shot of our camp

After much indecision  around the sleeping arrangements we finally settled into our tents only to find David dripping in sweat in the tent, moved out to join David under the stars leaving me hoping the tear from one end of the tent wall to the other where the floor joined the wall was not going to give too easy an access to the rat I saw after dinner or the large orange ants (that I hope aren't fire ants) that are crawling all over the tent! Could be a long night!😁