Day 7: Dawn Walk Along The Beach and The Sea Turtles

Friday morning and our last full day here on Big Island before moving on to Maui.

So we decided to take another dawn walk along the sandy beach at our hotel and enjoy the cool early sunshine. It was 6:30 am and the sun had just come up over Mauna Kea and we ventured off along the soft sand and lava beach.

There were a few early joggers out but other than that it was us and the birds.

After we had walked about half a mile along the beach we saw some sea turtles swimming close to shore - and a little further on a couple of them were lying in the sun - just taking some early morning rays.

These sea turtles are protected by local laws and are not allowed to be moved - which may sometimes be difficult as apparently the larger of the species are 220 pounds!

The turtles are very slow and awkward on the shore but once in the ocean they swim very swiftly and very gracefully - later in the morning the whole family donned our snorkeling gear and swam amongst them on the coral reef which circles around the island.

This was another great experience especially for Laura and Kay who have never been snorkeling the ocean before.

Here is some video of the turtles swimming in the shallow waters close to shore early in the morning.