Pulau Rinca

As it turns out, despite being known throughout the world, as the famous Komodo Dragons, they are in fact apparently much easier to locate on the island of Rinca, where daily, masses of tourists descend on the island to see these ancient lizards.

So we headed off to Rinca.

Passing safely through 'Shotgun Reef' channel, so called for the speed at which one is expelled from the venturi like passage, as you pass between Gili Lawa Darat and Komodo Island, was thankfully uneventful. The clarity of the water makes it very hard to estimate the true depth beneath ,visually, so we just picked the middle and away we went . I was keeping a lookout forward, but its impossible to tell how deep it really is.All you can do is watch for the really shallow reefy parts!

Gili Lawat  Darat on the rhs, Komodo on the LHS. Made it!

Gili Lawa Darat is obviously  on the dive boat charter circuit for sunrise shots, with  a clear path leading to the summit of the island, and the number of  boats there so early in the morning led us to that conclusion.
Passing by the photogenic  Makassar Reef, surrounded by phinisi and divers doing their thing , we continued on to Rinca.

Arrived in the anchorage at the head of the bay just after lunch, and watched the non stop arrivals and departures of the tourists, until we decided just after 1500hrs  to go ashore and book our tour for the following  morning at the ranger station.

just a sample of the comings and goings for the afternoon.We particularly liked the 'floating wedding cake'

Who is that?
Might tone the dress code down a bit tomorrow, just in case bright colours frighten them.
Hmmm, perhaps slightly more 'sensible ' footwear wouldn't go astray either .This was after all,only a reccy/booking foray though . Didn't seem to scare the monkeys which abound.