We slept quite well that night on the boat, as the engine was not running and the sea was calm.
In the morning the boat took us to Rinca island, which is another island where Komodo dragons live. As we got near the visitors’ centre, we saw again a bunch of dragons sleeping there. We headed to a walk through the forest and the savannah to see the dragons and perhaps some other animals also in a more natural setting. We were lucky enough to see two more dragons in the savannah. One of the dragons was really old – the park ranger called him the Grandfather. We saw also a big water buffalo.
After visiting Rinca, the boat continued towards Labuanbajo, a small town on Flores island which was our final destination. We made a swimming stop on the road, but everybody seemed anxious to get out of the boat for good.
We got to Labuanbajo around 3. As soon as we arrived, we headed to get tickets to fly to Bali in the upcoming days, as other fellow boat-travellers had been told that the flights may not be easily available in Labuanbajo and that the prices increase closer to the flying date. We took a bemo to the airport hoping to get offers from all airlines at the same spot. But the airport was really small and only one of the airlines (Lion Air) had an office there. Their offer seemed too expensive. We had noticed an office of another airline (Merpati) on the way to the airport and so we took another bemo to get there. We got the tickets to fly to Bali in two days time and paid less for this flight than any of our friends from the boat.
Once we had the plan of how to get out of Labuanbajo, we could make plans of how to stay and make the most of our time there. We found a decent guesthouse and booked a diving trip for the next day, as the rumours were that diving around Komodo and Flores is nothing short of awesome. Once done with all the technical stuff, we could sit down and enjoy dinner with Lutz and Reto from the boat, but for change not on the boat but in a nice place on land, watching the sunset over the bay.
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