On Taking Chances

One scene in Ocean movie keeps playing in mind every time i think of saline water: lighting crashes, rain falls, it storms. one coconut tree is struck, falls into the sea. Meanwhile, a medium-sized monitor (biawak) rushed to the scene and swims to the fallen trunk, embarking on a journey to an island or a beach or ... to uncertainty.

Think that's why water monitors (Varanus salvator) roam on small islands like ones i've visited in Kepulauan Seribu. Some of these lizards even grows as fat and big as the komodo dragons--ones i had an encounter with at Pulau Rambut.

(Mr. Monitor after morning bath, photo by friend Tetty aka 'tettyyangmotoloch')

Yes, I admire them:  their slender appearance, graceful movement on the land and in the water as well. i admire their skin pattern. bag, camera case, and shoes made out of monitor skin are my wish list... no, kidding! :)

Last weekend at the beach of Pulau Biawak, Indramayu, i stood admiring its residents. The monitors. and all i could do was wowing. They're such incredible reptiles, swimming and walking--and running away--gracefully :)

they took chances and got there. So did I.


PS: I wonder why--for centuries--komodo monitors (V. komodoensis) unlike distant cousins V. salvator, remain landlocked in Komodo Is., Rinca Is, and some smaller islands nearby, and do not take chances. too heavy-bodied? Nature is a big mystery.