By this point of my travels, everytime I had mentioned that I was going to Indonesia, everyone had told me I needed to do the Wanua boat trip! Wanua is a company that offers boat trips from Flores to Lombok, through the Komodo National Park, visiting the beautiful islands and hopefully showing off the wildlife that the park is famous for.

Sara (the Italian girl I met first in Cameron Highlands (and then in KL and Kota Kinabalu)) and I had agreed to do the boat trip together. I flew from Bali and she flew from Java but as fate would have it, her flight was late and mine was early so we were both at baggage claim at the same time. It might sound strange but seeing Sara at the airport in Flores felt like I was being reunited with an old friend that I’d not seen in years! We left the airport and managed to find some (only slightly dodgy) motorbike taxis to take us to our hotel. We dumped out stuff, went to check in for the boat trip and headed for a pizza (well when you’re with an Italian, what can you do?!) before an early night as we had a very early morning!

When we got to the boat we headed straight upstairs to see our bedroom for the next four days and three nights. We chose the deck option which meant we were on mattresses on the upper deck with the majority of the rest of the boat trippers!

Day 1 – Rinca Island

Rinca Island is the island between Flores and Komodo islands and was an amazing place to start our Komodo adventure! Within minutes of being on the island we were greeted by the huge beasts that are the komodo dragon! Our local tour guide for the island explained that they like to hang out next to the kitchen cabin as they like the smell of the chickens cooking! We embarked on a small hike of the island climbing up to the top of a hill to see a beautiful view of the bay below us.

Pink Beach

Pink Beach really was pink! It sounds stupid but when I had seen pictures online, I thought that it wasn’t possible for a place to actually look like that, turns out it did! We spend some time swimming in the sea and chilling out on the beach. At one point I got taken out by a wave and got dragged across some coral, cutting my back – yet another time the sea has tried to kill me, so I stuck to the beach for a bit after that!

Komodo Island

Komodo Island is what this whole trip is all about! Not long after the announcement that this island would be closed to tourists from the beginning of 2020 we rocked up to this amazing place. Just walking along the jetty we saw a Komodo Dragon walking along the beach. (Everytime I watch the below video I laugh, they look so funny when they walk!) The island is home to lots of other wildlife that we managed to get a glimpse of, including pigs and deer and of course got up close and personal to the komodo dragons!

Day 2 – Padar Island

We started the day with an early wake up call to go to Padar Island before sunrise to see one of the most famous views in Indonesia (it’s the cover of the lonely planet guide book) in all its glory. I gave up counting the steps but I can tell you there were a lot!! The view was worth every single one!

Middle of the ocean

We made an unchartered stop so that we could all take it in turns jumping into the sea from the boat, snorkeling and just generally enjoy the sea. The video below proves that I did in fact jump from the boat into the sea, risking my life (but it doesn’t show that every other single person on the boat had jumped in before I got the guts to do it to!)

Gili Banta

Now I accidentally left my phone on the boat for Gili Banta but it’s a super tiny island that you can walk from one side to the other in about a minute and a half! I think this video I took from the boat shows you just how small this paradise island was and Sara took the photo of me on the swing to prove that I actually stepped foot on the island!

Day 3 – Moyo Island

We then had a super long boat ride to Moyo island, it could have been anywhere between 14 and 17 hours but the wind was on outside so we managed to make quite a quick passage. We passed the time by playing cribbage which was so much fun as I’ve not played for years – shout out to Jake for bringing his crib board and cards!

We were visiting Moyo island mainly to see a beautiful waterfall. Unfortunately, so were 4 other boat loads of people which diminished the excitement of the stop somewhat but then we did some snorkeling on the beach and I made friends with a crab!

Gili Bola

We spent that evening having a beach party, in a makeshift bar that only opens for the Wanua trips. We danced the night away on the beach, eating octopus that had been cooked on a camp fire meters away and having a few chilled beers! Then it was back to the boat for the last nights sleep

A few of us hardcore people managed to wake up early enough to go back to the island to see the sunrise. We hiked up to the top of the highest point on the island to get the best view of the sunrise. The problem was coming back down…! The path was made of very slippery little stones and a lot of dust! Luckily Sara was wearing her walking boots so she held my hand all the way down as we did a sideways crab walk so I didnt slip over my flip flops!

Then it was time to head back to dry land (at least until the afternoon) The boat docked in Lombok island and we embarked on a minibus trip firstly to the capital of Mataram for lunch and then onto the Gili Islands