Labuan Bajo

You walk only with rangers front and back, each carrying a forked stick. The lizards hunt by smell, so they ask you to say beforehand if there is any blood. Bites were long blamed on bacteria; the reading now is that glands in the lower jaw carry venom.

Smaller than Komodo and closer in, so half a day covers it. The lizards often lie in the shade by the ranger post, which is why people see more of them here.

From the ridge, three bays with differently coloured sand come into one view. Steps take under half an hour to reach the top. Nothing grows tall there, so the boats leave before dawn to beat the heat. Step off the stairs and the soil crumbles underfoot.

Manta rays gather here to be cleaned, so boats hold position and people drop in. The current is strong, so you ride it past rather than swim against it. Touching them or pressing down from above scatters them, and you are told not to drop below.

Under an hour by boat from Labuan Bajo, and thirty minutes to walk the whole island. Coral starts right at the shore, so the place to moor and the place to swim are marked apart.

Only around midday does light reach through a gap and bounce off the wall, which is where mirror rock comes from. Coral and turtle fossils sit in the limestone, evidence this hill was seabed. The passage at the back is low enough to need a bent back.

Seven houses under conical roofs sit in a ring in a bowl up in the mountains. The road stops a couple of hours short on foot, and arriving means a rite of greeting the village elder first. Getting out the same day is hard, so most stay the night.

Flying foxes that spend the day hanging in the mangroves lift off together at dusk. Boats hold off the island and wait for the sky to darken with them. They cross to mainland Flores through the night for fruit and return at dawn.

When the boats come in late in the afternoon, the day's catch goes straight onto the stalls by the pier. Hand what you choose to the grill next door and they cook it; that is charged by the fish, not the weight.

At low water a white sandbar surfaces well offshore in a crescent. It goes under completely when the water rises, so the hour a boat can land shifts with the tide each day. Mantas sometimes pass through the shallows beside it.

A pink-tinted beach on Komodo island, coloured by fragments of red foraminifera shell mixed into white sand. Reef starts right off the waterline, so snorkel boats always stop here. The midday sun bites, and the beach offers little shade.

A grassy hill rising over the coast north of Labuan Bajo, about 20 minutes' drive from town. From the top the sun goes down between the offshore islands. Dry months turn the grass brown and the slope slippery, so wear trainers.

A terraced lookout on a hill in town, gazing down on pinisi boats anchored in the bay. Around sunset its tiers crowd with people watching the sky turn and the boat lights come on. You can walk up to it from the port.

A canyon reached by driving inland from Labuan Bajo for roughly an hour, then walking down through forest. Young men from the village leap off high rocks into deep pools between the walls. Rain turns the water muddy; the clear green comes in the dry season.

A seaside cave reached by boat from Rangko village, with a pool of clear salt water inside. When sun slips through the gap in the ceiling the water glows blue, so the hours around midday are best. The rock underfoot is sharp; wear water shoes.

An island at the north of Komodo National Park, where a walk up the grassy ridge looks down on curving bays. In 2018 a visitor's discarded fire burned much of the slope, and the grass has since grown back. Climb early, or the shadeless ridge is punishing.

A small island off Labuan Bajo that day-trip boats often visit first. A short but steep scramble up gives the white sandbar and surrounding islands in one frame. The loose soil is slippery coming down, and many end up sliding on their backsides.

Manggarai fields split into wedges from one centre point, so the paddies look like a spider's web. From the hill at Cara village near Ruteng the pattern shows whole. The drive from Labuan Bajo takes three or four hours, so it is paired with Wae Rebo or Ruteng.