Australia Trip 2019 - Part 4 - Komodo Island to Exmouth
- Wayne Webster
- Sep 23, 2021
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 6, 2021
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Sunday, October 27th, 2019 - At Sea Bound for Komodo Island - Sun and Cloud - Brief Shower
I attended too many talks today, not enough exercise or relaxing. Went to "Ask the Captain" this morning. Very good virtual tour of the bridge and a lot of questions from the passengers about our carbon footprint, recycling, water use, disposal, sewage, fuel, etc. etc. Actually this ship isn't doing too badly - they recycle everything, desalinate a lot of water, clean all the water before dumping, are very conscious of fuel (money issue). The newer shops will have liquid gas. Lots more to be done of course. The speaker was a nice man, a Brit from the Lake District. This was worth the time.
Then a talk on Komodo Island and the dragon, for when we get to Indonesia the day after tomorrow. There was 1,670 dragons on the island. They are ten feet long, weigh 70 kg, feed on deer, water buffalo, as well as anything dead. Eats 80% of its body weight in one go, and only needs to feed about twelve times a year. Has a venomous bite. Hunt in groups. They were digging up dead bodies in the cemetery, so it was moved to clay soil loaded with rocks. Can locate on dead animals for six miles. They hatch 20 eggs at a go. Eight to nine years until sexual maturity. Live for 30 years. Tail is as long as its body. Sixty serrated teeth. Long yellow forked tongue. Hide is not suitable for leather, so no good for poachers. They can run at 20 km per hour and have great sight, but poor hearing. Don't do well in zoos. Everyone going to the island (which is a national park) must be in a group with a ranger who carries a pronged stick for defence or to scare they off. There are also two venomous snakes on the island - a cobra and a viper. We were warned that it will be hot - 104 degrees. We walk for about two miles.
In the afternoon we went to two more talks. One by a professional photographer, poor speaker, but fabulous pictures. He's from Wanaka in New Zealand. Then a good talk by a woman who works with crocodiles and studies their bite patterns. Lots of bites - people are stupid! You don't go in or near the water in their habitat.
Did get six rounds in this morning, but failed to do the other six - I blame the heat. Went to the dining room for brunch - very nice, but not great service. I love our wait team at night - Zaimal, Juanacho and Allan.
Monday, October 28th, 2019 - At Sea Bound for Komodo Island - Sunny and Hot
Very relaxing sea day. Wayne went to a talk on Alfred Wallace, who actually came up with the theory of evolution at the same time as Darwin. Said the talk was good.
I went to no talks today, but did walk twelve rounds (6+6) and about four more just getting around the ship - 4 miles. For the rest of the day, we just lazed and read and did puzzles. Saw a huge school of dolphins right close to the ship. They put on a wonderful show for us. Komodo tomorrow - early start - having room service breakfast.
Tuesday, October 29th, 2019 - Komodo Island - Sunny and Very Hot
Really good day today, but exhausting! Early start 6:15 am. Tendered in to te island, a lengthy process as they had only one spot for our tenders to dock, so one couldn't come in until the previous tender left. Very hot, even at 8:30 am. Met our guide and two rangers front and back to protect us with their forked sticks. Large group - maybe 30-40. Then we walked with lots of stops for two hours. It is the end of the dry season here, so not a lot of shade. Apparently we were lucky today - at a watering hole, almost dried up, we saw two very large komodo dragons resting, plus one very entertaining juvenie (moving a lot, climbing tree). About four groups of us were around the hole, at times only about twenty fee away from the, They seemed pretty tame to me - as if they are habituated to people.
Gallery of Our Komodo Island Pictures
We also saw deer and wild boar, but not water buffalo on our walk (the food for the komodos). At another point, just our group and just some of us, climbed a short, steep hill and saw another dragon asleep in the shade. The hill was hard to get up and harder to get down. One of the rangers went in front of me, holding both my hands, and got me down. The hill and getting off the tender across a gap of open water onto a narrow set of steep stone steps up to the pier were the toughest part of the day, but I did it! We also saw some lovely wild orchids growing, up in the the trees. None of the washrooms were open, but I made it for four hours - dehydration probably helped!
The crafts were not good - looked like all made in China, and the vendors were a little aggressive (in a nice way) so we didn't linger. Held up in the tender line while they loaded a man in a wheelchair - I guess he had been hurt or taken ill. The heat is very debilitating.
Back to the ship by noon, exhausted. Wayne had had enough heat, so he stayed in the air conditioned cabin. Even in the room it is 77 F when the thermostat is set for 68 F. I did go out to the shady side of the promenade deck for a couple of hours. Some young boys in a rowboat were imploring people to throw money - we don't carry money on the ship so I doubt they had too many takers. You feel sorry for the people, but if you give to one or two, the hordes descend. We did tip our our guide and the two rangers though. It was a good experience - almost hypnotic walking in the heat. My camera has packed it in totally and my foot was quite swollen - icing it like mad.
Wednesday, October 30th, 2019 - At Sea and Bound for Broome - Sunny and Hot
Another good sea day. Walked twelve rounds (6 + 6). Went to three talks. One on Broome - not much here, but interesting frontier town. Very big sealing industry. An excellent talk by the Thursday Island girl on beachcombing - treasure or trash. First part was all the great things you can see on the beach: sea stars (starfish not a fish), mussels, clams, limpets, crabs, scallops, aboline, sea urchins, oysters and then trash. Especially the pacific trash area - the size of Texas - mostly plastic. Inspired me to do more to cut out single use plastics - we're pretty good, but not perfect. Take-out coffee cups are lined with plastic and can't be recycled in most areas. Very amusing video about a plastic bag. Hung out on promenade in between.
Went up to see the sunset at 6 pm, then at 6:30 pm went to another good talk on the Kimberley - the area north of Broome - very unique, one of the most sparsely populated areas on earth - sandstone, caves, pictoglyphs, enormous tides, baobab trees. waterfalls, no paved roads. Looked fascinating - one of the oldest chunks of rock in the world - collided with Australia and joined it.
Dinner has been wonderful so far, but hit a mediocre main course today - boeuf bourguignon. Should have had the Marlin as Zaimal recommended.
A couple of gorgeous hikes in the Kimberley:
Thursday, October 31st, 2019 - Broome - Sunny and Hot
A good day in Broome, Western Australia - although with transportation issues again. Lovely morning and then immigration again for the third time. Caught the free shuttle into the center of Broome. It is totally different than I imagined. I had imagined a sleepy old fashioned village. It is a big, sprawling modern town. Ten major cyclones have devastated Broome. Got wifi at the Tourist Information (and phone signal kicked in just before we docked) so got a lengthy email out. Then bought the $10 pass on the local bus. First bus was very late and we couldn't get on, so decided to take the bus to the town beach and the museum. In total, we waite over an hour for a service that was supposed to be every 20 minutes. Got out at the museum and the day picked up from there. The Broome Museum was small, personal and wonderful.
It really helped you to understand the history of the place - the pearl fishery, the war years. It is tremendously cosmopolitan. The Japanese, Chinese and Aborigials far outnumbered the whites. The White Australia Policy was not enforced here - they are a long way from the bureaucracy. Some very sad stories: the Aboriginals were enslaved to do the pearl diving. They preferred pregnant women, thinking they had greater lung capacity. Many died. Nine hundred and nineteen Japanese divers are buried here in a well kept cemetery and a lovely sculpture of a pregnant Aboriginal woman: Women of Pearling rising from the sea.
It was a pretty wild frontier town, run by the white pearl barons. In WWII they were bombed and a couple of tragic stories of refugee ships from Java being bombed by the Japs and the town being bombed.
It is beautiful here: reddish sand, azure seas, deep blue skies - wonderful. The tides are huge - we came in at high tide, returned at low. Our ship cabin is now under the pier. The landscape is totally different - 33 m tides - highest in the world next to Fundy.
Then went to the famed Cable Beach - so named because the first cable was laid from here to Java in the late 1800s - Australia's only fast communication with the world. It is a glorious beach - 22 miles long, surely one of the top ten in the world - totally unspoiled. Had a lovely thirty minute walk on the beach before returning to the centre of town - the heat (38 C) really drags it out of you.
Very convenient Liquor Land. Got a could of bottles. Interesting - when Wayne went to the washroom to make the transfer to the water bottles, the garbage can was full of bottles - so we're not the only ones smuggling booze aboard.
Friday, November 1st, 2019 - At Sea Bound for Exmouth - Sunny, Warm and Windy
Good sea day today. Went to the talk on Exmouth this morning. Did six rounds on the promenade, but by afternoon it was very windy, so we went to the gym. Did treadmill and stretched. Seas getting rougher after being very calm so far.
Watch the horizon at the back of the ship.
But may make you seasick!
Went to Karina's talk on whale shark spotting - best job in the world. She worked at the Ningaloo Reef as a whale shark spotter, when we are going tomorrow from Exmouth. The Ningaloo Coast is now a UNESCO Heritage Site:
Was a Gala Night - terrific dinner: jumbo shrimp, salmon appetizer, sea food soup and surf & surf (two lobster tails). At dinner, we talked to a lovely couple from near where Auntie Rene lived in South Sussex.
Saturday, November 2nd, 2019 - At Sea Bound for Geraldton - Sunny, Cool and Windy
Big disappointment today. We were just about to start tendering into Exmouth for our trip to the Ningaloo Reef (a fringe reef so it is close to shore, not like the Great Barrier Reef which takes a two hour board trip to get to) when the captain announced that the wind was too high and the seas too rough to tender, so we left - another sea day. I think he was being a bit of a wuss myself. Obviously no one who isn't fully mobile and agile should tender, but the rest of us could. We have tendered in way worse than this. I am really disappointed. The Ningaloo reef is much smaller than the Great Barrier Reef, but is absolutely pristine. The coral is not bleached and there is an amazing diversity of creatures because of a current that brings food down from the the north.
Did get a signal briefly, got an email from Gill and shot a brief one out to Anna to email us ASAP. Tried to get another one out to Gill and Suse, but lost the signal as we moved away.
Bit of a nothing day today. They didn't put the pads for the chairs out, so we sat on bare wood for three hours. Walked our six rounds. They did have a talk by Eris on working with the crocodiles. Then went to the gym. Even the sunset wasn't doing much. Good dinner: roast beef. Talked to a nice couple from Florida at dinner. Seas and wind calmer by tonight.
Go on to Australia Trip 2019 - Part 5
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