ELLISTON OH ELLISTON

Hello my friends, I hope you are enjoying life and planning your respective 'escapes'.
Well surprise, surprise, we didn't leave Elliston when we had planned to - we were to leave on the 19th, then the 21st, then the 22nd and finally we managed to drag ourselves away on the 26th April. You may deduce from this dear Watson, that we enjoyed Elliston - spot on!! I have to say I just loved the wide open feel of the caravan park and surrounds, and TBBITW became a born-again fisherman for a while and I really don't think I could have dragged him away if I had tried.
There is a fishing spot some 10 ks east of Elliston called Loch Wells - this is a truly stunning spot, however in order to fish, one has to traverse 280+ steps down and then of course, back up again. TBBITW took up an offer from a fellow camper to do a spot of fishing at Lock Wells - sadly, no fish were caught on this occasion, but my dears, the legs, the legs!!!... We were in some discomfort for a couple of days after the climb. Some three days later he was invited by a madman to go fishing in a very small tinny - of course he went, two consecutive days in a tiny tinny on top of the stairway to hell, and TBBITW turned into TMDBITW - the most decrepit bloke in the world. As we all know girls, if blokes gave birth, negative population growth would apply - I tell you, if my beautiful man had to have the kids, we would have regressed while he ran whimpering into the distance. Don't get me wrong, I love him to bits, but he is not the strong silent type when it comes to suffering - I didn't know the human face could contort like that!! Of course, it may well be that given a serious condition, he wouldn't say peep. Let's hope we never find out.
We went on a sight-seeing expedition to Loch Well a few days later and it is a stunning spot - very high hills surround a pristine surf/fishing beach which stretches out into the distance. There is a really good viewing platform there (only a few steps) and from there I could see a young seal playing in the surf - just amazing. The more I see of the Southern Ocean and this remote coastline, the more I realise just what a wonderful healthy Eco-system is operating in this part of the world. Fortunately, this is one corner of the globe we don 't seem to have mucked up (yet!).
I mentioned a madman - we met a wonderfully interesting couple, lets call them Barry and Bernadine - what incredible people. They were pushing 70 and both would go fishing most days in this tiny tinny. Barry immigrated from Yorkshire when he was 16 and went almost immediately to the outback. They now live in Parkes in NSW - I don't think they spend much time there however. We were told many hair-raising tales of camping by crocodile infested rivers in the Territory and far north Qld. I have to tell you, I am an animal lover from way back and have a bit of a problem listening to hunting tales. Barry was just one big hunting tale! He owns 37 guns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He shoots pigs, rabbits, turkeys, snakes, and I dread to think what else. I was somewhat mollified to find that he is not really a cruel man, and always kill with one shot to the brain - I was only somewhat comforted by this fact tho'. I know that much of what he does is considered constructive, shooting ferals, but I am just not that comfortable with that degree of death. Apart from his propensity to killing things, he was literally unable to speak below a bellow and had the laugh of a berserker! You could hear him laughing all over the camp. He was totally homophobic and any poor bloke who didn't look totally 'blokey' was automatically suspect. One poor bloke was consigned to the 'no good' pile, just because he wore orange crocs! You may wonder about Bernadine - well she was a quiet lady, but entirely in sink with her man. She didn't shoot stuff, but she was obviously proud of his 'achievements' and was not at all adverse to the blood and guts. Despite the aura of blood attached to Brian I eventually warmed to him. They were unfailingly generous people and quite happy to split the catch down the midde and he wouldn't hear of accepting any money for fuel. As a result of the fishing forays, we ended up with good supplies of King George Whiting, squid and several other odds and sods. On top of all this, we did manage to catch up with the local pro. fisherman and TBBITW bought up all his remaining KGW stocks. The madman, had spent some time at Cowell before going to Elliston and had discovered a seriously cheap supply of fresh oysters. He bought and consumed no less than 42 dozen oysters and had ordered a further 17 dozen to pick up on his way back thru'. He also introduced us to another way of preparing and consuming oysters. Boil up some water, when it comes to the boil, toss in the oysters, wait until the water comes back to the boil and then boil for 5 mins. He gave us a couple to try cooked this way - we were not terribly impressed, we much prefer to have ours just below frozen - but some people love them this way. It did accentuate the flavour and they were quite chewy.
ANZAC day came and went while we were at Elliston, and we found that many people in camp (including the madman) were Vietnam Vets - it seems that many of these blokes travel around the countryside - they tend to have their regiment colours displayed on their cars and vans and there is a real brotherhood involved. Really good to see.
Well kiddlywinks, I'll leave you in peace for now - we are now in Coffin Bay, but that is for another day. I'll put a few more photos of Elliston in the next issue, as I have yet to down-load them from the trusty camera.
Love yourselves - Stephanie