In a nutshell; we returned after Rinjani, eventually decided on our next trip, booked it and then mooched around Air for 5 nights till we were due to set sail. We did pop over to Gili Trawangan but there's not much to report; bigger, brasher and full of party tourists, we realised quickly we were right to stay on Air. The end.
As hinted above, the next trip would be by sea. We'd always intended (before leaving England) to head to Komodo to see the dragons, we duly booked a four day boat trip with various stops, Komodo islands and national park inclusive, ending in Flores. Perfect.
We zipped over to the Lombok mainland where we noted 2 boats of dubious quality docked. There have been a few trips where the boats have sunk in recent years so they now travel in tandem; that's what I would refer to in IT as dealing with the "issue" not the "problem", but hey, whatever, you only live once, right?
Once we, our luggage and our booze were loaded aboard we set off on fine waters and in fine weather for our sea bound adventure.
The crew of 5 were a friendly and helpful bunch and the other 20ish passengers turned out to be a pretty great and varied bunch too. This really was good news as we would be in each others faces for the entire trip. It was pretty cramped, there were no showers, we'd all eat in a circle on deck and we would all sleep in a long line next to one another on the covered upper deck. We knew this before boarding so no problem. What we were pleased about was that the the boat wasn't fully booked out to a full capacity of 35 passengers, this really would have been interesting.
We had two cracking days island hopping, snorkelling, chilling, chatting and drinking. We twice engaged in epically long Texas hold um sessions; both times I was chip leader going into heads up, both times I finished second... Both times were winner takes all. Balls.
The final two days were all about the dragons. First, the island of Komodo itself and then the island of Rinca on the final morning before arriving in Flores. We were apprehensive about how wild the dragons would be, our guides assured us it was the oppressive day time heat that made them seem so subdued. Regardless, I knew they had to be seen in real life to be appreciated and I wasn't let down!
On Komodo we saw outrageously large lizards, in Rinca they were smaller but clearly, and alarmingly, territorial and aggressive! In both cases the islands themselves were also stunning to behold; dry, craggy and covered in odd plant and tree life, they are quite otherworldly.
Laden with great photos and videos of the worlds largest lizards, not to mention a swathe of new Facebook friends, we headed on to Flores and absolutely no idea what we would be doing next!!
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