Komodo Trip With Kids: Visiting Rinca Island

Traveling to Komodo Island with our kids was one of our travel dream destination in 2015. Actually mr.husband had requested this Komodo live aboard (LOB) trip since 2 years ago. Finally I said yes after checking out that the boat which will be used by our group was actually very nice:D

We will post several stories about our Komodo trip with kids, but let me start with how we had visited Rinca Island, and saw Komodo in the real life for the first time! Many pictures will be uploaded in each of the Komodo Trip's stories, please be ready:)

The ranger and the female Komodo

19 July 2015. It was the first day of our Komodo trip. We arrived at Rinca Island around 3 pm, after our snorkeling session in Kelor Island. There were only some boats at the pier, and our two boats parked side by side. Yes we used 2 boats to explore Komodo, our group in total consist of 17 people, whereas 6 of them were our boys and girls.

Approaching Rinca Island

3 rangers greeted us at the entrance, and they walked with us to the rangers' office area first, where a short briefing for our group will be held. "Loh" means bay, while "buaya" means Komodo.

The entrance to the Loh Buaya - Komodo National Park

Welcome to the Komodo National Park, Rinca Island

The path leading to the office area

In the briefing, we were warned to stay in the group, so that the three rangers provided will be able to protect us. And the most challenging rule especially for the kids was that we had to keep quiet. Well, of course, with 6 kids around! All of us listened to the ranger's explanation with a full attention.

The short briefing. Picture was taken by Tante Ciarina

The journey started. One ranger lead us in front, one young ranger named Kons was in the middle with me, and the other one walked at the back. I was having period so I stayed close to the ranger.

Let's look for a Komodo:)

Then the ranger found a baby Komodo which was 2 years old. It walked really fast heading to a tree. The ranger explained that baby Komodo protect itself from being eaten by adult Komodo by going up to the tree.

Seeing a baby Komodo in a distance

We walked a little bit further and found another baby Komodo. Though it looks cute, still I felt scary to be close with a baby Komodo. Imagine, how if it ran to our group?

A 2 years old baby Komodo

It was difficult to find male Komodo during August because they prefer to stay in the remote area to find female Komodo. Hence the ranger took us to the nest area of Maleo bird. Komodo used Maleo's nests to put their eggs. 

The nests of Maleo birds

And the rangers' prediction was right, we found a female Komodo lying near the nests area. "She is pregnant" the ranger explained. Well, it looks very heavy for this Komodo to move, but still it made my heart beats so fast! I was scared!

Look at the eyes!

After taking pictures with the female Komodo, we continued our trekking up to the hills. The track was not that heavy, our Kiddos could walk by their own to the hill.

Kiddos, Tante Ciarina and Om Andre walked upfront

Let's go up to the hill

When we finally reached the hill, we enjoyed the amazing view to the sea.

The ray of light

Enjoying the beauty of Flores

It's time for a group picture on the hill. Everyone was really happy. Thank you to our trip organizer @ibupenyu and @windyariestanty who had taken our group picture. By the way, it was never easy to take picture of our kids. The girls closed their face with the hats, while the boys were busy with the rocks:D

A group picture, without some of the children's face:D

The view, the trees, the hills were really photogenic. I meant it seriously! I wished that we could have stayed here longer, but we had to move on and go back to our boat.

What a lovely place!

The rest of the group had already gone, while the remaining 
were busy taking pictures:D

It's time for us to leave Rinca Island, and head to Kalong Island where we had a plan to see thousand of bats at sunset.  

Going back to our boat

Bye Rinca Island

We were lucky to meet babies and an adult Komodo in Rinca Island. A super experience for our Kiddos to see Komodo in the real life. You should visit this place, at least once in your life.



written on July 25, 2015 by @tesyasblog


tesyasvlog Komodo:
See our video during our family trip to Komodo Day 1 in this link.


Next Post:
Thousand of Bats at Kalong Island


Previous Post:
Snorkeling in Kelor Island


Related Post (in Bahasa Indonesia):
Liburan ke Komodo Day 2



Would like to experience Rinca Island like we did? We enjoyed our Komodo Trip so much! We recommend you to contact our trip organizer @ibupenyu if you'd like to go to Komodo. Email her to ibupenyu@gmail.com. Just tell her Tesya sent you.