Today’s been another less than vintage summer day with a mix of sunshine, showers, high winds and temperatures that are more like October than July. The one consolation is that the Calder Valley always looks beautiful in the constantly changing light and the rain’s left the fields looking radiant with a painter’s palette full of shades of green. Sadly, I’ve not had time to get out with the camera as I’ve various deadlines to meet at the moment so I’ve spent most of the day working from home. Hopefully I’ll be able to tear myself away for a day and hope to make my first rail trip since March.

In the meantime, here’s the picture of the day, which was taken on an island few ventured to in those days. Komodo, island of the dragons…

I took this picture on the 2nd September 1992. I was on my long solo trip and had reached the beautiful Indonesian Island of Flores, where I based myself at the port of Labuanbajo for a few days in order to take a trip to Komodo with a local guide.

In those days small groups would take day trips to the island, sign in with the PHPA wardens, then your group (plus a goat, which was on a one-way trip) would trek out into the bush near the camp where there was a small viewing platform around a shallow depression which had several Komodo dragons of varying sizes hanging around waiting to be fed. The poor goat would have its throat slit and be thrown into the arena, which galvanized the dragons into action – as you can see here. It’s not a sight for the squeamish – and some of these dragons are big buggers!

When I returned with Lynn in 1998 the practice had been stopped at it was realised that it was making the dragons lazy! So, the chance to get photo’s like this anymore is long gone. Not that the goats mind…

 

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