When travelling in Indonesia, so many people have Komodo National Park and Flores as must-see bucket list items! And guess what? So did we! 😉
How did we do it?
When determining how exactly we were going to get from Lombok to Flores, we had a few options: planes, trains, automobiles AND boats. Naturally we chose the 4D3N boat trip! We booked our boat trip at a tourist trap vendor on the side of a walking path on Gili Trawangan Island. Obviously this raised some anxiety, since we were backpackers and pretty frugal with our money. Picking a company to go with was also difficult, as there seemed to be about a million to choose from and all incredibly pricey. In the end, we decided on Wanua Adventure for the affordability.
Our package included:
- Pick up from Gili T. and transfer to the Lombok office
- A “bed” for 3 nights
- All meals
- All National Park entrance fees
- A guide for Komodo Island and Rinca Island
Not included:
- Beer, wine, any drink other than water (but you can bring your own!)
- We opted for Bintang and VERY cheap white rum (Yuck)
Once at the Wanua Adventure office, we hopped in a van for a 2 hour ride to the harbour. And so began our adventure!
Our 4 days went something like this…
Day 1: Kenawa Island
After rushing to claim our beds, a quick briefing about the trip and a lunch of rice, vegetable and tempe, we set sail! Our first stop was Kenawa Island, about a 4 hour journey. The island resembled a large green cone, and we hiked to the top for sunset! Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t ideal so we had to leave before the storm rolled in, but we managed to catch it from the boat. Once back at the boat, we got to know our boat mates a little bit better.
After some beer and card games, we went to bed and prepared for a 2:30am wake up from the loud boat motor so we could make it to Moyo Island in a timely manner.
Day 2: Moyo Waterfall
We were taken to shore in small boats and began a short hike to Moyo Waterfall. Once at the waterfall, we discovered it was “sticky”. With the help of a rope, you could climb right up the waterfall! At the top was a rope swing and a large tree you could jump off into a deep pool.
During the day, Adam had an unfortunate reaction to his Malaria pills and developed a decent fever and had to nap for the rest of the day. He claims his fever was worse than actually having Malaria, but he’s dramatic. Good thing we had a 16 hour trip from Moyo Island to Komodo National Park.
Day 3: Manta Point, Komodo Island, Pink Beach
Waking up on the morning of the 3rd day was like waking up in Neverland! We continued on to Manta Point from here. As we began getting closer, we could see a frenzy of what looked like shark fins poking out of the water. The crew was so excited yelling “Manta! Manta!”. The boat stopped, and we all instantly grabbed the closest snorkelling gear and jumped in the water. Within minutes we were surrounded by the most majestic creatures gliding through the water. They were incredibly curious and would swim right up to you. There were 30+ of them and our guide and captain said we were incredibly lucky as there are usually only around 5-10.
Though Adam and I could have stayed here all day, we had to continue on to Komodo Island.
As we began our hike, we spotted 2 Komodo dragons instantly! A large male, and a smaller female. Our guide explained that one bite introduces 60 different types of bacteria, used to kill their prey.
Next up: Pink beach.
Pink peach actually has naturally pink sand, produced by the surrounding red coral. Adam was adamant it wasn’t pink. I’ll let you decide…the snorkeling was absolutely incredible here, once you were far enough from the shallow water where there was no longer piles of garbage engrained in the ocean floor.
Day 4: Padar Island, Rinca Island, Labuan Bajo
Our first stop of the day was hiking Padar Island for sunrise – arguably the most well known spot on this boat trip. Though Adam was still struggling with mild sickness, he was a trooper and made it up! The view was spectacular, with 3 crescent shaped beaches lining the island: black, white and pink.
We then continued on to Rinca Island, where a guide took us on another hike to find Komodo Dragons!
And Finally, on to the last snorkelling spot of the trip. We found three cuttlefish, a nurse shark and a couple blue-spotted sting rays. An epic end to a spectacular trip!
And just like that, our trip was over! We docked at Labuan Bajo, Flores and we all headed to our hotels for a shower to meet up later for PIZZA!
