Battling Komodo Dragons to Survive
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
Picture this: You’re on a diving trip in Indonesia, when you surface and realize that your boat can’t be found. You’re stranded in the middle of the ocean with four other companions, far from help or rescue. That’s bad.
But then you’re swept to a beautiful island, where you subsist on mussels scraped off of rocks. That’s not so bad.
But then you and your fellow survivors realize that said island is infested with toxic, man-eating lizards which you’ll spend two days fighting off before rescue. That’s really bad.
Five European divers on a reef trip off Komodo National Park in Indonesia actually survived this ordeal, ensuring that they’ll have vacation stories the neighbors will actually want to hear. After getting separated from their tour group by strong tides, a Frenchman, a Swede, and three Brits (including one of the tour operators) washed up on the island of Rinca — home territory for fearsome Komodo dragons. They spent two nights foraging for shellfish and battling back hungry lizards with makeshift weapons like rocks.
Frenchman Laurent Pinel, 31, said the group had to fight off one dragon with rocks and scavenged for shellfish as they waited to be rescued, Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported.
“On the beach a Komodo dragon came amongst us [Friday] afternoon,” Pinel said, describing how the group had to pelt the dangerous reptile with rocks to scare it away.
“We had nothing to eat. We ate some kind of mussels scraped from the rocks,” Pinel told the newspaper.
Eventually, park rangers rescued the divers and got them off the island; other than being mildly dehydrated, they’re reported to be in good health. That’s quite lucky, since Komodo dragons can grow 10 feet long, weigh 300 pounds, and kill you with either 1-inch long fangs or their bacteria-infused saliva, which induces septicemia in their unfortunate victims. Also, they usually start eating their prey before it dies.
Though it’s true these unfortunate people endured a horrific experience, they didn’t emerge empty-handed: As a consolation prize for their troubles, they can go forward in life knowing that they’re guaranteed to have the best cocktail party stories of all time.
“Oh, you have a really strong portfolio going into the third quarter? Fantastic. Did I mention I survived for two days on a deserted island filled with giant lizards trying to eat my face off? It was pretty cool.”
— Ted Alvarez
