24th ~ 29th March

Not far down the Eyre Peninsula is Elliston, yet another small farming, fishing and holiday village . Breaking our ingrained habit of not booking ahead, here, because of Easter, we rang forward yesterday and secured a site to hibernate during the maddening Easter break. Elliston sits on a natural harbour, Waterloo Bay, with headlands, Salmon and Welligton, quite wide apart but with a reef protecting it from the open ocean. The township boasts a great pub, General Store, Café, bakery and Pharmacy, oh, and a Policemen of fearsome repute!

From Smoky Bay we first came to Streaky Bay, possibly the best known and picturesque of the holiday townships along this coastline. If Easter were not upon us we could have easily spent a lazy few days here. The main shopping street runs straight up a slight hill of the long jetty that protrudes well out into the pristine bay. We soon find a park for the rig and do a walk through town to being to restock our pantry and bar. Here we also found a seafood shop attached to a processing shed backing onto its own jetty and commercial boats, and grabbed three dozen oysters and some King George Whiting fillets for tomorrow, Good Friday (being the God fearing couple we are). It was strange for us to leave such a place that we would have enjoyed a few days at, damn holiday crowds.

Next call was to Murphy's Haystacks, a few kilometres off the highway and on private land, the Haystacks are a gathering (flock?) of large sandstone boulders rounded, smoothed and shaped by the millennia into fat squat sculptures . The farmer has fenced around them and graciously granted access, for a small donation, and provided a walk of a few hundred metres around the structures. We made some good photos.

At Elliston Caravan Park we were warmly greeted by the young couple that manage the place and even given a choice of sites as they don't allocate specific sites, and we were a day ahead of the frustrating crowd. There was a grassy alcove new the office which appealed and so we were tucked into this rather secluded spot. The next day we were joined by four young couples but it was not cramped and they were good fun.

Across from our alcove was another Lotus, owners Gordon and Cath, to whom Roscoe introduced himself and we were to enjoy a few chats and happy hours with. Also our mates Ben and Jan had secured a site and arrived later in the afternoon, don't know where they detoured to, but it all made for a very social Easter. One evening Ben and Jan cooked a huge chicken in their Weber while we did a big serve of vegetable in ours,mind the chicken took about 3 beers longer than anticipated to cook which made for a jolly meal .

Elliston has a "Clifftops Scenic Drive" on which we embarked one afternoon and discovered that it held various ocean sculptures at intervals along the way. Great heads like found on that Pacific Island, skeletons of sealife, a huge pair of thongs (footwear) and many others, quite entertaining and all placed with a dramatic backdrop of sheer cliffs dropping to the whitewater of the Southern Oceans relentless assault. Also along this drive we found a well known surf spot, a really heavy big churning left called Blackfella's (not PC but I just report it I don't make it up). About 80 metres below the carpark and lookout, down a really steep track, then a paddle across a rock shelf with stacks and gutters through cold water you then get to tackle a wave that really wants to kill you! The surfers below were visible but remote, though a pair of binoculars and the sound of a 10 foot wave sucking the water from the rock shelf then pounding it as it broke brought reality to focus ....Roscoe was not going surfing here, this was a local spot, and younger locals at that.

Standing watching the contest between surf and surfer we were interrupted by a voice saying "I'll give ya a history lesson of this place". The source of the interruption was a short, rather rotund bloke in his 60's, "My name's Nasty"! Right, of course it is! Turns out nasty spins a great story and over the next 40 minutes he spins plenty. Nasty also knows our mates Drew, Smiley, Moose, Ruth and Longy which does help his credentials. Mind they take a tumble when he says he was a Solicitor then a Barrister but he resurrects himself with the story of being a Surf Shop proprietor. Bankruptcy, three marriages, heart attack and prostrate cancer and Nasty's still standing, and pretty chirpy. This state just breeds characters!

Walks along the coast, a drive to Walkers Rocks and up to Talia and the Woolshed Caves, then south to The Lock Well beach with its 283 stairs to the beach which needs be climbed to get home (what about escalators) and the softest sand we have ever walked on which really helped the ascent, all this and more socialising filled in our days. Actually when we were due to leave on the Monday, along with a thousand other holiday makers, we decided to stay another day and have an easy day of it...R&R.