DAY 2
- Padar Island
The Indonesian island of Padar is about 20 miles (30 km) from Labuan Bajo, a fishing town on the westernmost part of Flores. Padar is small, but is the third largest island of Komodo National Park, and was once a stomping ground for the immense dragons that gave the reserve its name.
Padar is mostly savannah-covered, surreal landscape fringed by bright green-capped mountains of fairy-tale shapes. It's all surrounded by three turquoise bays, and curiously, each one of the bays' beaches has different coloured sand: One is pearly white, another charcoal black, and a third is a very rare baby pink. It is a rare combination, a quirk of this unique island.
- Long Beach & Pink Beach
Pink Beach, or Pantai Merah, as it is aptly named, is one of seven pink beaches on the planet, and is just one of the many amazing features of Komodo Island that make it truly a Natural Wonder of Nature. This exceptional beach gets its striking color from microscopic animals called Foraminifera, which produces a red pigment on the coral reefs. For this reason, it is called Red Beach in the local tongue. When the tiny fragments of red coral combine with the white sands, this produces the soft pink color that is visible along the shoreline. Aside from Pink Beach itself, a few small segments along Komodo's eastern bay also have a pinkish tint.