Dragon Islands

Are you bored of your life ? Was the worst day of your life this, when you realised that this fat Santa Claus is your grandpa, the red Power Ranger is the porn actor and the boxing fights are set up ? You can still pay about one thousand euro for plane ticket and visit one of the islands where dragons still live.

Ok, probably the naturalists will say that these animals have different names. But they look like the creatures from the legends and books. On an archipelago of the Lesser Sunda Islands, which sweep maps can be marked with the archaic warning used by medieval cartographers: here be dragons.

They don’t breathe fire or fly, but they are 3m long and heavier than two Asian gymnastics (70 kg). Once they have a buffalo or deer, between their jaws, nothing can stop them.

“It is a combined arsenal system. They have the teeth as the primary weapon and, if you don’t die outright from cutting a femoral artery, you are going to keep bleeding until you are out of blood and then you are dead” – said Bryan Fry of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

They are called “the Komodo dragons” (Varanus komodoensis) and live only on the islands of Rinca, Gili Motang, Nusa Kode, Flores, and Komodo (the reason of their name). They have survived ice ages, sea level rises, earthquakes and the subsequent tsunamis. If there will be a need, you would be a great lunch for them. Eating a human is not a problem for the animal which don’t consider vegetarianism as the best way to live.

The Indonesian government (the islands belong to this country) is trying to save these interesting creatures as many people from around the globe want to hunt them and make trophies.

In 1980 they made the 700 sq mile (1,810 sq km) Komodo National Park. It includes the three major islands of Komodo, Rinca and Padar, and numerous smaller islands. Parc was also declared a World Heritage Site in 1986.

Any plans for summer holidays ?