During the second week of the April school holidays in 1998, Andrew, Leonie and Kathryn went on a trip to the Mid West and Gascoyne Regions of Western Australia. These are some of the highlights from along the way.

Kalbarri - Findlay's Fresh Fish BBQ
One of the "must visit" eating establishments in Kalbarri, this place is more like an open air beach-side shack than a restaurant. However, this all adds to the lazy summer holiday feel about it. The food is excellent, cooked on the bar-b-ques and served right before you. This night I had honey-soy snapper and vegetables on a bed of fried rice. There are lots of old fishing artifacts around the place that relate to the early days when it was the towns ice works.

A panorama of the bay and estuary of the Murchison River

Kalbarri is surrounded by the beautifully rugged Kalbarri National Park. The gorge of the Murchison River cuts through the northern part of the Park. Not far from the road into to town, is a spectacular rock formation known as the Hawks Head.

In this part of Australia, there are many stretches of road with not much on them - no town, or settlements to speak of. Just a long straight flat bitumen road streching off into the distance. There are occasional pastoral properties along the road (but you'd never know - they are discovered by the dirt tracks that lead off to the side of the main road).
The only other thing to break the long distances are the occasional "road houses" - petrol stations, with an eatery, and, in the case of the Billabong Road House, also a pub. A "billabong" is a small water hole - how apt in such a hot dry landscape.

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