I was most definitely cutting it fine with this trip as I had a flight back to Newcastle booked. However I could not pass up the opportunity to see the Komodo Dragons in the wild before the national park closed to tourists in January 2020.
Usually this takes 4 days on a boat however we flew from Bali to Komodo Island to stay one night in a hostel before a 2 day 1 night boat trip.
This island had minimal tourists and was very very remote. Our GoJek taxi drivers car resembled Chewbacca.
We checked into La Boheme Bajo one of the few hostels on the island, it had such a quirky vibe. Although it didn’t have any charging ports apart from behind the bar and the rooms were very basic. We didn’t mind as we were getting picked up to start the boat trip at 7am and we managed to catch a beautiful red sky sunset!
We had a lovely group for the boat trip, which is just as well as we were about to spend 2 days out at sea together.
The first stop was Bidadari Island. This was an inhabited white sand island with huge clamshells – a lot heavier than they looked!
The second stop was Manta Point which was where you could swim with giant Manta rays – another thing I’d always wanted to do! However it was slightly scary being in the middle of the ocean with huge black shadows in the water and a none English speaking tour guide just shouting ‘JUMP!’ at the right time when he spotted one.
Manta rays move very quickly and at one stage I ended up practically jumping on top of one. We also seen a thankfully very small reef shark.
The final stop for that day was Padar Island and a mountain climb for sunset, just what you want at around 3pm in blistering heat after a long day. I had also stupidly fell asleep in the sun and resembled an actual lobster. Every time you thought you reached the summit there was another peak to climb to.
BUT the views from the top really did not disappoint at all and it was worth how sweaty and faint like we all were. I even managed to capture my first time-lapse of the sunset. Amelia also managed to get some yoga in.
It then came for time to sleep on the boat which I thought I would struggle with however the rocking motion made us all fall straight asleep after spending the evening watching shooting stars.
There wasn’t enough room for all of us on the upstairs sleeping deck so me and Amelia volunteered to sleep on the beanbags and made a little den under the stars which was beyond cute watching the sunrise as soon as you wake up.
It was an early start and we arrived at the Komodo National Park. This was the part everyone was waiting for. However again slightly scary considering Komodo Dragons can outrun humans and have fatally venomous bites!
We had to be escorted by rangers with pointy sticks everywhere we went and it wasn’t long before we came across a dragon and a baby one!
We then went to Pink Beach which was pink due to the breakdown of shells. We jumped off the boat and snorkelled here so unfortunately no pictures to show but trust me when I say it was also beautiful to see!
I had finally went back to my natural length hair and was fully embracing the salt in the hair beach girl vibe!
On the way back we managed to catch the sunset from the boat which lit up the entire sky with red tones – it was the perfect time to reflect on everything I’d achieved this trip.
We decided to treat ourselves for my last night in Bali and checked into a nicer hostel which had such a Santorini feel to it!
And just like that it was time to say bye to the amazing girls I’d travelled Bali with! Ready for a 6am flight back to Bali followed by a whole day to kill walking round the town and then 24 hours worth of flights home! Bali -> Kuala Lumpur -> London -> Newcastle.
Wanderlust Adventure 