Driving further south - Elliston - beautiful coast

We drove further south, for another 126 kms, and stopped at a small town called Elliston.   Interestingly even though there were mainly holiday homes on the foreshore in Elliston there was still a thriving permanent community with a grain silo, pub, grocery store, bakery, police station, school, post office, large sports centre and a small hospital.   I love the way these areas keep their post offices and hospitals.

The Eyre Peninsula is all about fish and fishing, and it is a pity we are not keen on fishing as we could have been in our element.   The peninsula has the largest commercial fishing fleet in the southern hemisphere, and there is an abundance of abalone, oysters, prawns, mussels, kingfish, tuna, rock lobster, crabs plus other fish that I cannot remember.   Hopefully there is no overfishing here, I have read articles about overfishing but I think they were based on rumours, nothing really definite.  We are in such a privileged position to have an abundance of fish in the southern waters.

Grain is also grown in abundance on the peninsula, with silos in every small town, and it is certainly a positive addition to the local economy.   I read an article while in Elliston about the salinity problem due to the removal of native scrub,    I did wonder about this as we drove through kilometres of cleared land.  In time the salt will rise as there is no native bush to filter the salty water rising from deep underground.   Australia has very sensitive vegetation and land, not to mention the animals that are also affected by the clearing of natural scrub.   We hope that those people in charge get it all right. 

But Elliston were right onto the problem with the sand dunes.  Elliston was in danger of being swamped by sand moving from the dunes, so there was a massive replanting of native bushes and grasses on the dunes, and hey presto the problem was solved.   Good news there.

The bays on the west coast of the peninsula look very benign but in the past there have been a number of shipwrecks around Elliston.   

A view of the sun setting over the sea.   It was not hot enough for a red sunset on this evening.

                                         

An early morning view of the bay in Elliston.   The water in the bays are very shallow, which suit Piper as she is not keen on deep water.

A view of the bay at Elliston, from the opposite side.

In between the lovely shallow bays there were cliffs and jagged rocks, so no wonder ships came to grief during storms.

                                        
We drove on a circular tour to see the Sculptures on the Cliffs, which was done by a local artist, John Turpie.   The day was perfect for viewing the sculptures, blue skies, sunshine and no wind.

This sculpture was not part of the sculpture tour, but it was very cute.

 We also drove 40 kilometres to see the Talia Caves, which were very dramatic.   We only saw the one in the photograph below, and then it was from a distance, as there was deep water below the entrance.   The bottom layer is granite, and the top is limestone which is layered and much softer.

The cave below no longer has a roof, as it caved in at some point in time.   It was possible to see how the waves wore away the limestone.   The floor was granite.   I guess at high tide the water would still gush through the entrance to the cave/hole.   Interestingly there were no fences around the huge hole.   Just a warning sign.   Caution was definitely needed when taking photographs.

It was a perfect day to appreciate the colours of the white sandy beaches and the aqua coloured water.

The caravan park was interesting, a trifle run down and certainly not up to the standard of our previous two parks, but homely all the same.   Caravans and people were crowded in together, with fine gravel to park the caravan and a small slab of concrete to sit on.  There were large caravans on either side of us, with our little pop top sandwiched in between.  It was all very close.   But the positive side to it was that you talked to people.  It was much friendlier than being spread out.   

Unfortunately I think I did so much talking to people there that I did not take any photographs!