Its ok, the Rangers are Armed with Sticks!

Was what our guide said at the moment we were about to disembark for Komodo Island. "Surely he means stakes right? Like a harpoon or something?" was my response as we had just watched a documentary on the Komodo dragon (in which it shown to be able to bring down a buffalo!)

No joke - these Komodo dragons can get absolutely huge at way over 6ft long and with shoulders larger than a mans (the scale is hard to get accross in the photos). They secreet deadly bacteria in their saliva and the guide at Rinca island informed us that a dragon had recently killed and 8 year old local.

This explains why Pete was somewhat aprehensive as this dragon made a bee-line for him (of course the ranger was there with his stick). the rest of us saw it as a perfect photo opportunity however.
Komodo Island rounded off a pretty cool 5 day boat trip in which we finally managed to get away from busy towns and cities and hawkers and see some countryside, stopping at desert islands, small villages and some spectacular reefs (although one of the coral reefs on the return journey escaped with half the skin from the top of my foot) around the islands of Lombok, Sumbawa, Rinca, Flores, and of course Komodo.

As you can see the scenery was rubbish:
We made some good friends on the trip (who hopefully we will keep in touch with). And got some pretty good sunburn.