This morning when we got up, we were greeted by a monkey sitting on the mud in front of the mangroves near Kosmos.

He was still contentedly sitting there when we went into shore. We met our ranger friend from yesterday at the ranger station at 0700 for a longer trek around Rinca, where we would hopefully see more animals. There were three Komodos under the cabin this morning, including a young one only about three and a half feet long.

We started off down a different path and quickly turned off of it, following the ranger across the dry plains. He has been a ranger here for over 20 years, so we knew we didn’t have to worry about him getting lost. Today’s route wasn’t as steep as yesterday’s, but we actually climbed to a higher altitude during the course of the walk. Fortunately, it was breezy and the cool wind helped to keep us from getting to hot. We did a good 8 kilometer loop over to the east side of the island, which took us three and a half hours. Over the course of the hike, we were surprised at the amount of variety to the landscape. Some of the areas were hard packed, dark colored, parched dirt. In other areas, the dirt was lighter in color, and in some areas it was very red and pebbly. The rocks were very colorful. The colors varied from area to area, some areas marbled with blues, purples, and greens and others marbled with reds and yellows. Some areas had a lot of trees and some were plains of dead grass. There were also some fields of green grass that were not nearly as dry as most of the rest of the island we had seen.

The coconut trees look different than the palms we have seen throughout the South Pacific. The coconuts they yield are tiny maybe the size of an orange. He pointed out some of the other unique plant life to us, as well. One of the things we had to be wary of were the buffalo pies. The larger ones are literally 6 inches thick and the circumference is bigger than both your feet put together. It would not be fun cleaning up the mess after stepping in one of them bad boys.

We did get to see a lot more wildlife, as promised. We saw two large Komodos lumbering around. The Komodos ignored us. We saw a couple of wild horses grazing in the field of green grass, who kept an eye on us to make sure we didn’t get too close. We saw several deer scurrying about, determined to make sure we got nowhere near them. We saw loads of monkeys running around, but they were always too far away to get a really good view. And we saw a lot of buffalo. The buffalo all reacted differently to us. Some ignored us completely and continued grazing as we walked by. Some ran away. Some watched us, looking ready to charge if we made a move they didn’t like. We actually got within 15 feet of one of the watchful buffalo. We were walking directly towards him when we spotted him grazing. He stopped grazing and stared us down, looking like he dared us to make a move he didn’t like. We walked around him. His eyes never left us, and he continued to turn his body so he was facing us until we were out of sight. Seeing all the animals in their natural environment was marvelous.

The view from the peak we were standing on at the west end of the island was absolutely outstanding. The water between the islands here is so calm that it looked more like a painting maybe the backdrop of a movie set than real life. You could see the west end of Flores Island, including the town of Labuan Bajo, and all the little the islands in between.

The ranger asked us if we wanted to see the flying foxes (AKA bats) tonight on the nearby island of Kabaa. There are thousands of bats that live there by day and at sunset they all fly away at once, hunting for food on all the nearby islands, and then returning to this island at dawn. He said it is exhilarating watching all the bats wake up and fly off. The rangers don’t have boat to take the tourists out in, so the only way for a tourist to get there is by private boat.

He said it we would leave at 1630 (4:30 pm), get there at 1700 (5:00 pm), that the bats usually fly at 1730 (5:30 pm) and we would be back before it was completely dark. He didn’t realize our dinghy was only 2 horsepower. We left on time, arriving at the island at 1800 (6:00 pm). We hand paddled into a break in the mangroves. It was almost like being in a cave, but with mangroves all around us instead of rock. He said the bats normally sleep in the trees here, but we had arrived too late and missed them.

Eric was worried about the return trip. There was no way we could make it before dark, and there was no moon tonight. Fortunately, we had brought a GPS with us and had actually turned it on, so we were able follow the same line back. This was a relief, since there were several islands in between us and our destination. Another plus is we were heading west, and were thus able to make the most of every single flicker of sunlight. We made it back to the dock well after darkness had fallen. We dropped off our guide, then went back to Kosmos, both with no problems. Phew.

The trip out to the island had been a pretty ride, with hilly Rinca and it’s grazing animals on our right, and blue water sprinkled with islands to our left and straight ahead. In some of the shallower water we could see coral and lots of wart covered star fish in several colors. On the way back, the sunset was pretty, turning the sky and water ahead of us gold. Once it got dark, the stars were bright and a small amount of bioluminescence twinkled at us all along the way. As we neared the little cove where we were anchored, the lightening began, which helped some with seeing in the dark. So, all in all, it wasn’t a wasted trip. It was a neat experience.