Simon Chapman - Catching Dragons

He was young and rich. She (his wife Katharine) was a beautiful actress. His name was Douglas Burden and he had hired a steam ship called the SS Dog to travel to a remote island to look for monsters. On board the ship there was also a French hunter called Defosse, but this was not a big-game hunting safari. Douglas was on a mission from the Bronx Zoo in New York. His instructions were: Go and bring us back a dragon! The volcanoes of Komodo Island rose up ahead of the ship like a fortress.

Just getting to the shore would not be easy. There was a reef around the island and the water boiled with whirlpool currents. The captain knew he had to find an open channel if they were to reach the shore. He knew they had gone too far in now to turn around and survive. A cross-current was taking the ship straight towards the rocks. There was a white sandy beach and behind that was a village of bamboo huts. There was a white sandy beach and behind that was a village of bamboo huts.

Douglas could see some people there so he started to walk closer. The villagers appeared to be hiding. They looked scared. See that graveyard over there, Defosse pointed to a patch of ground covered with rocks. Those rocks have been put on top to stop something digging up the dead. We could make our camp on that ridge near the volcano, he suggested.

It will be safer. As the group backed off towards the safety of their ship, they heard tom-tom drumming starting up from the village. Theyre signalling, Defosse said. But I dont know who or what to. Douglas was about to leave when he noticed a strange footprint at the edge of the beach. The track was bigger than his hand and looked like it had been made by a dinosaur.

Komodo dragon, Defosse said. Thats what were going to catch. It was hot, hard work exploring the volcanos sides. The jungle was choked with thorny plants. Douglas used a machete to hack his way to a waterfall that splashed over a cliff edge. He had just moved away from the waterfall and into an open clearing when he sensed something was wrong.

Something was scrabbling up a steep slope, knocking away rocks that came tumbling down behind it. A lizard 2.5 metres long, at least craned its head out from the scrub. Douglas could see the black, beady eye and the grey, scaled skin around its neck. He could smell the stench of dead meat. This was what it must be like to come face to face with a dinosaur, he thought. The beast was still, except for its forked tongue, which flicked in an out, tasting the air for its prey.

Maybe it could taste Douglass fear. He had to take control of himself and get back under cover. He had seen a Komodo dragon now, and he thought he knew how to catch it. The trap was really simple. It had a loop of rope tied to a bent-over tree. The bait was a dead wild boar.

The idea was that a Komodo dragon would go for the meat and get caught in the rope. The bent tree would then spring up, pulling the lizard into the air. It was a good plan, but things never work out that simply as Douglas was about to find out. The problem was there were just too many Komodo dragons around. Most of them were small (only about 1.5 metres long) and these ones were the most inquisitive. Komodo dragons are cunning.

They can sit still for hours, and when they are covered in dust and leaves they look just like dead wood. One nearly got Douglass wife, Katharine. She had been taking photos of a small dragon that was tugging at the bait. She did not notice the larger one that was creeping up behind her until she suddenly smelled dead meat. She moved just in time.