ENTICING ELLISTON

YES, YES, YES, YES,OH YEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!
Elliston is absolutely lovely - I am soooooo glad to be here and to have left Smoky Bay behind us. Don't get me wrong, Smoky is a wonderful place to be if you are a fishy person - even tho' TBBITW does drop a line in once in a while, I think our main interest in fish, is in eating some. We arrived at Elliston 5 days ag0 - and I was so happy to see that it is green, wonderful grassy green. Even the surrounding paddocks are starting to green up and it is lovely to see. We are staying at the Elliston Caravan Park, close to the historical jetty. We have a great bay which overlooks the surrounding paddocks and I can see for miles, whew - I felt soooo closed in at Smoky, just looking at the fence and the other vans - this is marvellous. The park is all green lawn and nice and soft. A really nice little park, well run, with a brand new pool (bit cold now) and a jumping thingy for the kids. Bearing in mind that it is the last week of the school hols, there are still a few ankle biters running around the camp. At least here, the noise is absorbed by the grass and the sheer 'outdoorsness' of the place and the kids noise vanishes into the ether. I must confess, I could stay here for months, regardless of the weather. The little town boasts a good bakery, supermarket, pub, hospital, pharmacy and info centre. What more do need? We were lucky enough to find local prawns at the supermarket (at a good price) and we have sourced some local fisherfolk who will sell you fresh fish. We haven't actually spoken to these people yet, but will do before we leave. TBBITW hasn't dropped a line in here, as it seems the fish are a bit off the bite at the moment. The only stuff being caught off the jetty is herring (tommy-roughs) and garfish (all very small) - not really worth the effort in our book. Plenty of people seem to love these little fish, so we will leave them all for them.
The local scenery is quite stunning - really where farming meets fishing, literally. Gently rolling pastoral hills, softly running down to the spectacular ocean cliffs. The sea-line is a combination of raging seas crashing onto sheer granite and limestone cliffs, interspersed with bays where the water gently laps the sandy shore. There are good salmon fishing beaches and generous whiting holes. Colonies of sea-lions living off shore, promise the odd sighting of seals. One of the local very hairy surfing beaches boasts dolphins which literally surf with the brave (insane?) souls who loiter there on their boards. Most of the surf spots require these brave folk to traverse almost sheer cliff faces in order to reach the ocean, and then paddle out past treacherous rocks and reefs to the place where the waves form. Surfing these waves in, they then have to avoid being crushed on those same rocks or pulled under the reefs. The amazing thing is that these erstwhile surfer boys (at least the ones we saw) mostly won't see 5o again - not youngsters by any stretch.
For the twitchers amongst you, the bird life here seems prolific - we have seen many birds which I have not been able to identify, along with some old favourites. I was delighted to have the company of a little fantail right outside the caravan the other day - he came in and gave us a little dance - he has visited us every day since. Just wonderful. We always put water for the birds at each stop - it's really interesting to see who comes to drink.
The weather here has been brilliant too, lovely clear blue days around the mid to high 20s and cool crisp nights, wonderful for sleeping. Today however has dawned grey and I am listening now to the rain drops on the caravan roof - being a rain lover from way back, it is very comforting to be inside listening to the rain - the country around here certainly needs it, and this will be good seeding rain for the area.
They are having a bit of a mouse problem in this vicinity at the moment - apparently last season was the best they have had for years, and the mice can reach plague proportions very quickly when that happens. Streaky and Smoky both had considerable probs and the evenings at Smoky were occasionally punctuated by the squeals of ladies discovering them in their annexes or tents. We had no probs at Smoky, but did find a dead one in our car here yesterday. We are not sure if he was a local or whether or not we imported him from Smoky - certainly we have not seen any live ones here.
We are supposed to be leaving here on Monday and heading off to Coffin Bay, but I am inclined to just stay a couple of extra days here - of course if the rain persists we might as well move on I guess.
Anyway folks, I had better close this up and give the bloke back the modem so he can go on line and play a little poker (pretend money only)
Oh, just before I forget, some of the photos will show some rather unusual items in the forefront, there is Tourist Drive here and it features local artists' sculptures etc.
Love for Now - Steph.