These monstrous beasts seem lazy and harmless, until they don’t

It certainly doesn’t look like a dragon. In fact, it’s kind of cute. But first impressions can be misleading when it comes to this animal, as I later discover.

I’ve arrived at Komodo Island on board the Seven Seas Explorer, a luxurious Regent Seven Seas Cruises ship I boarded in Bali and I’m making my way back to Australia aboard, stopping off at Lombok and, now, Komodo on the way.

Stepping out onto my balcony in the morning as we approach our anchor point (we reach the island via tenders), I’m struck by the bleak, unforgiving landscape that greets me. The island features rugged, grassy hills and relatively dry vegetation. It feels a world away from the lush and tropical Bali.

The island’s reptilian inhabitants themselves were shrouded in mystery, at least in the West, until early last century, when Dutch explorers set out to find the truth behind these rumours of “dragons”. Surprisingly for the time, Dutch authorities quickly recognised their rarity and enacted laws to protect them.

We’re hoping they don’t prove too rare today as our group sets off down a marked path inland with our guide and two other park employees, both of whom carry Y-shaped staffs for fending off the dragons if necessary.

I ask one of them if he’s ever had to use it. “Every day, man,” he says. I can’t tell if he’s joking.

It’s not long before we come across two large specimens, lounging in the shade under a tree next to a small water hole. They’re waiting, we’re told, for a native deer or other animal to risk trying to get a drink.

They barely move, occasionally shifting their heads, but another young one appears behind them and sets off across our path before climbing a tree (the dragons are cannibalistic, so juveniles spend most of their time in trees, out of reach of the adults, which are too large and heavy to climb).

Some of the older members of our group struggle under the searing heat of the day, so it’s ironic when we make it back to the beach, after walking for about 90 minutes on the inland loop, to discover two large dragons resting on the shore. Other tour groups are there, surrounding the lizards and crouching behind them to get their photos taken.

Like the two large ones we saw inland, these two are lying, almost motionless, relaxing in the shade. Their fearsome reputation seems unfounded. Tourists are within a metre or two of them, utterly without fear.

Back on board the ship, we run into a fellow Australian passenger who we met a couple of days earlier who went ashore later than us, as part of the last group on the ship.

“Oh, so you didn’t see it?” he says. His group heard the loud noises in the bush and their guide quickly led them to find a dragon taking down a deer.

It’s such a rare sight even the guides were snapping photos, he says.

“It didn’t kill it,” he says “just pulled it down and started munching on it. It was amazing to see, but gruesome. Eventually you had to turn away.”

He shows us a video and it is indeed disturbing. These are simple reptiles, with none of the intelligence or elegance a big cat shows when it hunts (where it will try to kill its prey quickly to prevent it struggling). The Komodo dragon, by contrast, simply bites into the animal’s leg and starts eating as its victim bleats in pain.

It’s hard to believe that only an hour earlier we’d stood within striking distance of what appeared to be lazy, docile lizards. It’s an ugly reminder that these animals were named dragons for a reason.

THE DETAILS

Regent has several cruises that make stops at Komodo Island. A Bali (Benoa) to Sydney, 16-night cruise in a deluxe veranda suite is currently on sale (until February 29) at a 40 per cent discount for $12,540 per person. See rssc.com

The writer travelled as a guest of Regent Seven Seas Cruises.