You know you live in paradise when....

...you don't have to pay for a whale watch tour when you can see this from the local beach!!!

{Google images}

I wish I'd had my phone or camera with me to take some photos, so I've searched for some on the internet to give you an idea of what we saw.

We were just sitting on the beach reading and enjoying the sun. Apart from the sound of the waves you could also hear a 'thump', quite regularly.

When we looked out past the breakers, there was 2 humpbacks tail slapping! This was the noise you could hear. The sound carried with the wind and you could hear the delayed 'thump' after we'd seen it happen. They were frolicking around and every now and then you'd see them 'blow'. We didn't see any breaching though.

They tail slapped for about 10 minutes, then moved on down a bit further, had a bit more of a play, then...no more. They were gone, on their way home down south, no doubt. We had a free 30 minute display in total. but it was hard to tell if it was mother and calf. They stayed in one area for quite a while, then disappeared and came up a little bit further down. Both tails were quite big, so it could have been 2 adults. And they were only tail slapping, so I'm not sure what this meant.

This is not the first time we've seen whales. We visited Seal Rocks when one of my sons was visiting a few years back, and saw them from the lighthouse lookout. Another time was at Crescent Head.

Here's a link to the Google map of Elizabeth Beach. They were out in line with the furthest point on the right hand side of the beach.

Dolphins are a regular sight also in the area, surfing through the breakers. I haven't seen any for a while, and it is usually at my beach combing place, Seven Mile Beach that I've seen them surfing, like this.

{Google image}

I'm definitely going to make sure I have my camera with me next time I'm at the beach. It's around this time of the year we see a few whales on their way home. I will go armed and ready from now on...so hopefully next time I can show you the real thing and not Google images to help describe such an amazing sight.

Gotta love it!!!