THE GREYING NOMADS
We continued along the 2,000 plus kilometres of the Eyre Coastline to Elliston. The town is named after one of Australia’s lesser known writers Ellis Liston.
We enjoyed our ‘creature comforts’ at the shady, grassed Elliston Caravan Park 1km before the town, utilizing our Seniors discount. Here too they were recovering from flooding rains but it was an 18 deg day, a bit cloudy but enough sun and warmth to get three loads of washing dry. Domestic stuff over, we explored Elliston and surrounds.
It is a lovely little town with vintage type houses murals, whale tails & dolphins made of brush and statues facing all directions.
Don’t miss out on the cliff top drives with a great view of the Great Australian Bight – one via Bird Rock, Pt Wellington and Little Bay lookout. The harsh granite surfaces are topped with amazing shells high up above the crashing oceans below. What really fascinated us was the amazing tenacity of the birdlife and the fantastic flora on the cliff tops. The photos show the precarious perches that the birds ‘enjoy’ to survive. We watch one bird protecting its nest from the predatory hawks. We helped a little by trying to scare the hawk but who knows what happened when we left.
Cliff Top drive 2 is 12 km between Anxious Bay and Waterloo Bay. Cape Finniss has a classic panorama over the Waldergrave islands, a sanctuary for fairy penguins, seals and Cape Barren Geese. Here is a famous surf break called Blackfellows Beach where in 2000 two surfers fell victim to Great Whites within 24 hours of each other. There is a memorial plaque to one of them on a picnic bench with the following inscription:
“ The search is the driving force…
For any restless souls who dream…
Perfect waves hitting an unchartered reef…
The eerie white silence on an untracked powder bowl…
The magical thrill of discovery…
The gripping rush…Pure freedom, where nothing else matters…
He joined the search.
In loving memory of Jevan Wright 7-10- 82 – 25-9-2000”
Note the poignancy in that his potential father-in-law was surfing with him at the time but no remains were ever found.
Needless to say we didn’t swim here.
A main feature of the drives is the dramatic sculptures, left over from a symposium held in 2002. One cliff top sculpture “Sorrow” is by Eva Grava of the tragedy that befell the indigenous people here in the 1840s. It is dazzling white thermalite, only one of the original two.
The sculptures have vastly different subjects and use various materials, from rusty looking bicycles and to fish skeletons, thongs and Easter Island type themes.
We did the inevitable jetty walk at Waterloo Bay – called Elliston Pier Walk – with happy little dogs enjoying the water and again the inevitable seagulls soaring.
In town of Elliston we had a lovely bakery lunch and later visited the nice little pub for dinner with cheap seafood meals (but very small servings). All in all, we loved this little unspoiled town in our Eyre Experience, a photographers mecca!
