Komodo Islands Itinerary - Day 2

Last September I went on a trip to the islands of the Komodo National Park and I had never seen anything like it, so this year I obviously had to come back! The previous post covered the first full day itinerary of our adventure so if you missed it make sure to check it out, this post will continue with our day 2 endeavours.

Palau Padar, nested deep in the Komodo National Park archipelago, should be right at the top of the bucket list for everyone honestly. This place is beyond beautiful and no photos will ever be able to do this place any justice in my opinion - but I tried my best! It is hands down one of the most impressive islands I have ever visited! We arrived just in time for sunset the day before and of course had to get back up here for sunrise. This island is beyond magical. Before leaving Denmark to travel over a year ago I had a hard time believing these places existed. I was in my happy place all morning long. It didn’t matter what direction I looked and shot, it was beautiful everywhere!

Em & I Enjoying the Sunrise

We set off after breakfast to our first pink beach of the day. This spot in Flores was quite hard to believe! A naturally PINK beach with wildly turquoise waters rolling up to it. The reason it has such a unique pink colour, is because of a special type of coral, which is blood red! It’s special in the sense that it’s colours don’t bleach when the coral itself dies, instead it just splits into tiny red particles, that when it blends with the white sand, creates a soft pink tint- pretty crazy right!?

Em Enjoying the Pink Beach

Since Emma and I met in January this year, she always said “take me here” whenever she saw photos of the pink beaches in Komodo. Her dream not only became a reality but we were lucky enough to visit TWO in the same day! It’s hard to imagine places like this even exist outside of movie productions. These two beaches were both uninhabited and completely unspoiled. The way the blue colours of the water meet the pink sand is mesmerising! Such a beautiful spot and so awesome to swim in.

After lunch we headed to Rinca Island, which is also known as “Komodo Dragon Island”. For those who don't know, Komodo National Park is known mainly for its inhabitants – namly, the Komodo dragons! These animals are massive, and are extremely fast, powerful and honestly very deadly (they can smell blood from up to four kilometres away), however we of course want to see them for ourselves because lets face it, its not every day you get to see Dragons! We saw multiple Komodos who all seemed very relaxed and calm- but don’t be fooled, these carnivorous animals are incredibly dangerous! They hunt everything including buffalo, birds, monkeys, pigs, geckos and eggs.

Dragon on the Move!

Would you want to visit Komodo Island?

Our sunset spot for the day was Kalong Island which is famous for the thousands and thousands of bats that fly from the island just after sunset! No one knows where they go but apparently they hang around in the mangroves all day and then as the sun disappears they fly off the island to find food! We all gathered on the top deck to watch the sky light up and experience this amazing natural phenomenon- it was truly magical!

So that concludes our second day on the boat, we set up anchor not far from Kalong Island and spent the night there. The next post will cover all activities from our third and final day sailing around the Komodo Islands!