Komodo: more time at sea than on the islands

Komodo National Park is made up of islands including Komodo, Rinca and Padar, with no roads between them, so everything goes by boat. Most boats into the park leave from Labuan Bajo, at the western tip of Flores, and by the end of a trip you have spent as much time at sea as on land.

On Padar Island the ridge trail climbs stone steps over slopes of dry yellow grass and bare rock. There is no shade in the dry season, which is why most people go up early, and from the ridge you look down on three bays.

The sand on the pink beach is white underneath; the colour comes from red fragments mixed into it. Most are the red shells of foraminifera, single-celled marine organisms, and the rest are broken pieces of the dark red skeleton of organ pipe coral. The pink is strongest when a wave has just pulled back and the sand is still wet.

On the Labuan Bajo waterfront the stalls light their charcoal in the early evening. The day's fish, squid and prawns are laid out on ice, and whatever the customer picks goes on the grill. Souvenir shops nearby often put carved wooden dragons outside.

The real dragons are on Komodo and Rinca, seen only on trails led by park rangers. The rangers carry long sticks forked at the end; the dragons often lie beside the path or in the shade, barely moving.