Ben Welsher | Writings

Day 157 - The Flores Sea You can take the ape out of the savanna but you can't take the savanna out of the ape. Our brains still have prey-like reflexes from when we were food for leopards and, as the enormous shape moved at speed in my peripheral vision, I couldn't help but flinch. The animal's mouth opened wider than my whole body and engulfed the bait put out so obligingly for it. This was the second morning of the Komodo tour and I'd almost missed it. It had swiftly become clear that on the tour we would be viewing every sunset...and every sunrise. It has only been 16 days since my last rant about sunrise so I won't re-tread that ground but suffice to say that after a night on a thin mattress sharing a deck with 19 other slightly-washed people I would not be getting up at 5AM. There was something different this morning though. A commotion. We'd already passed the stranded tour boat that had hit a rock a few days previously and we'd seen the video of p...