Flores is one of the larger islands in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (Bahasa Indonesian = Nusa Tenggara Timur). Its name, meaning flowers in Portuguese, pays homage to its history as a former portuguese colony in the 16th century before becoming part of the Dutch East Indies.

Flores is more than double the size of Bali with only half the inhabitants. Its population density sits at 135 per square kilometre – compared to almost 10 times the amount in Java (1,121 per square kilometre). On Flores, Indonesia seems rural and wild.

We land at the airport of Maumere, the largest town in the eastern part of Flores – with a population of approximately 70,000. Our propeller plane lands roughly with the added challenge of the monsoon season.

We don’t rest long. We are headed 30 kilometres east to the villages of Wodong and Waiterang. Here, we rested in bamboo cottages overlooking the black volcanic sand along north-eastern coast of Flores.

Egon volcano (Bahasa Indonesian = Gunung Egon) is a popular day hike from here, however its most recent eruption only a week ago means its off-bounds. We decide to hire out a fishing canoe for the afternoon to explore the ocean instead. We spent approximately 40% of our time enjoying the scenery and 60% nervously balancing the canoe to avoid certain capsize. Obviously, 0% was spent taking photographs.

We had to meet friends in Labuan Bajo (on the west coast of Flores), so we headed west the next day. We had initially planned to visit the town of Sikka – famous for its ikan weaving, however we couldn’t fit this into our schedule. The local bus headed to Moni from Wodong (along the Larantuka-Ende line) took approximately 5 hours. The winding roads provide breathtaking scenery as it meanders from coastal town to villages littered along the valleys between the volcanoes which sit along the “Ring of Fire”. Moni is base camp for those looking to view the three lakes of Kelimutu (Bahasa Indonesian = Gunung Kelimutu). Despite the monsoon rains and the fog, we still manage to catch a glimpse of all three lakes.

From Moni, we took the local bus 2.5 hours to Ende. In a predominantly Roman Catholic Flores, Ende (and Labuan Bajo) host the largest concentration of Muslims on the island. Like any coastal town, life bustles at the marketplace along the harbour.

The volcanic black sand coastline is a special sight for those who grew up along the white sand coastline of Australia.

Next stop, Bajawa. One of my favourite places on Flores. The town itself is nothing special, but its base camp for exploring many traditional villages, natural geysers, waterfalls and hot springs. The people here are (almost) untouched by globalisation and capitalisation – except for the widespread use of satellite dishes. The jungle remains wildly overgrown with native plants, and untouched by palm plantations which have largely plagued many larger islands of the Malay Peninsula. We were hosted by Marselino, a native to the Bajawa district, at his homestay. We hired mopeds to explore the surrounding area, guided by Marselino’s own hand-drawn map.

Westbound again. Ruteng is home to hills upon hills of rice terraces. For the archeology enthusiastics, Liang Bua (meaning cave in the local Mangarrai language) is located just north of Ruteng. Here, in 2003, a new species Homo floresiensis was discovered.

The last leg, bound for Labuan Bajo. Labuan Bajo is a harbourtown, and draws tourists from around the world as its base camp to visit the Komodo dragons. We rented a fishing boat for the day to visit the island of Rinca. Rinca is home to over 2,800 Komodo dragons, as well as crocodiles, macaques, birdlife, wild water buffaloes and mangrove crabs.

Komodo dragons live on three islands: Komodo, Rinca and Flores. In Flores, around 15-20 can be found in the central north coast. Komodo dragons are largely solitary, however they have learned some social skills from “hanging out” under the park ranger’s kitchen. Komodo dragons mate in June-July, besides that feisty period, they prefer to live a rather chilled life. The gestation period is like ours – 9 months. Mothers dig several nests to camouflage the true nest. This provides better odds for survival for the eggs, not only from other predators but also from the cannibal mother – if she chooses to come back hunting to eat some eggs. The baby Komodo, once hatched, spend most of its first three years living in the trees. After this period, it loses its ability to climb.

Flores overland possible in a week. Next time, we’ll definitely be back for a month.