Our second stop of the day is at Pulau Rinca (Rinca Island), where we can find the giant lizard Komodo, one of the endangered animal on its habitat. 

It takes us about an hour boat ride from Kelor island to arrive at Loh Buaya pier, at Pulau Rinca. The ambience is so calm and serene, but make no mistake, this is the habitat of crocodile and Komodo, which are known as carnivor beast at times. 

After docked our ship at Loh Buaya, we were ushered to Komodo National Park, where we were assigned to a ranger who will guide us in finding the Komodo throughout the park.

Our ranger then explain to us the trek which we will be taking, and advise us the characteristics of Komodo and how we should behave when it’s in our sight.

We’re immediately greeted by 15 years old Komodo who was lazily walking around the Rangers complex in National Park. It is not a too big Komodo, less than 2 meters long, but nevertheless it’s still remarkable experience to meet with it in such close quarters. 

We took family picture with the creature and then follow our ranger through the trek, hoping to meet another Komodos. Unfortunately it is a mating season, hence many Komodos are in hiding.  But anyway the trek seems to promise a nice scenery, so we shouldn’t be too disappointed. 

The trekking scenery was indeed beautiful. The ranger took us through green savannah and show us Komodos nesting place inside the forest. Of course we took pictures along the way. But the best is yet to come….

… which was we met with another Komodo in the forest! This time, it’s a 30 years old Komodo, and 2.5 meters long. It’s big! We were so lucky to be able to find him in his natural habitat, unlike in Rangers complex as we often find in the photos. 

So after that surprisingly pleasant encounter, we continue to walk along the trek to the top of Rinca hill. From the top, view of Loh Buaya is so beautiful, a spot you shouldn’t miss for mandatory picture taking!

So after we had enough of photo taking, we returned to the National Park base camp. The trek downhill was a bit tricky, as it has a lot of rolling stones, so we had to be careful. Just follow the ranger/guide instruction, and you’ll be fine.

Arriving at the camp, we took a bit of rest and refreshment, before returning to or boat. We’re so grateful for Indonesian government to start looking at this natural conservation park seriously. And we’re even grateful to meet such dedicated rangers who passionately guide us and preserve this endangered animals habitat. There’s even an old ranger who have served 34 years here! Thank you very much pak! I can only write this post to let the world know that Indonesia is doing great cause here.