Last day on Kauai – Wednesday

Took it easy today – dodgy ankles still limiting walking, but we have seen the stuff of most interest anyway, and the frequent rain doesn’t encourage long walks.

Drove to Wailua Waterfall – which was fine except that the viewing spot enabled a good view of only the top half of the fall, not the exciting crashing- into- the-pool bit. Looks like previously there was a path down to the bottom which probably addressed that angle – but it was closed off. So we didn’t bother with pictures for once ( small mercies).

Drove on to POHUI on the south coast . Nice beaches and sunnier , but very busy. Snorkeling there was disappointing … a few fish, but not great visibility and too shallow to swim freely. But then it all kicked off, nature-wise.

Six green bottles, lying on the shore …

Big excitement when we saw 6 Green Turtles (which nearly fits the song,) resting on the sand – apparently unbothered by the tourist hordes milling round them. Volunteer rangers had put up ” do not hassle these poor animals, you peasants” boards, staking out a 3m perimeter – which was pretty well observed. They dragged themselves onto the sand and collapsed for a kip.

Then a large grey lump appeared in the waves right in front of us – a Monk Seal, one of Hawaii’s only 2 native mammals. After lolling about in the surf for a few minutes, it dragged itself onto the shore to warm up, protected by another exclusion zone made of ” and that goes for this one, too !” signs.

After that excitement, we headed back to the east coast in search of better snorkelling on the way home, but it was all very rough waves .

Dinner time – treated ourselves to tacos at a well reviewed seafood place. Mine was ok but didn’t taste much of the promised Ahi tuna, whereas Lianne was in raptures about her vegan Tempeh taco ….then I realised we had been given each other’s orders. Lianne’s face was a picture when I asked her to swap 😕. The remains of the Ahi was indeed beautiful 😁.

So : It’s been a good week here, despite the dodgy weather – we got much more done than we had feared from the early forecasts, and it really is a very beautiful place. Strong recommend from us, with a downgrade for the eye-watering prices.