A Desert Treasure

Last year when we hiked the Fish River Canyon, we started talking (as all hikers do) about food. Not just any food, but what you would love to eat right at that moment. Norm's input was fish, chips and salad for main course and apple strudel both from the Road House - he pronounced the apple strudel as the best he had ever had.

We had seen the sign which said "Road House", but never for one minute actually thought it was an eatery - we are talking about a place hundreds of kilometres from anywhere, and it certainly didn't seem likely. Even less likely that they might serve apple strudel and the best ever to boot.

So a year later, after an extremely long morning of roadside car repairing, we headed for The Canyon Road House, 20kms from the canyon viewpoint, in search of this heavenly apple strudel.

We decided to spent the night there at the camp site, as the one car we were travelling in had a cracked sump and we did not want to test it too much on the dirt roads.

 I was pleasantly surprised by this oasis in the dessert. The camp sites were large and really clean, with great ablution blocks. The staff are friendly and helpful.

We had supper in the restaurant, which has a small dinner menu. The decor is wonderfully quaint- a collection of old cars and car memorabilia.

I chose the lasagne and it was really well made using fresh pasta. Keith had the steak with which he was a little disappointed, but the others who finished it off pronounced it as "not bad".

They had a very interesting desert menu (the red wine ice-cream tasted lovely), but no apple strudel! We begged the managers to make an exception, to no avail, it is only available on their day time menu. They did however promise they would arrange for us to have it first thing in the morning for breakfast - Yippee, no instant oats for me!

They had a great looking breakfast buffet, which I would have sampled if I didn't have the apple strudel waiting for me.

We held them to their promise and I am very pleased to pronounce the apple strudel as the BEST EVER! Served with custard, it was without a doubt the best ever apple strudel that I (or the others in our party) have had.

So if you ever find yourself  in the area, it is definitely the place stop, just make sure you stay long enough to sample the lunch menu and try out the apple strudel, it is well worth the trip.

Our party had big smiles when we saw our breakfast. Thanks to Graham for fixing Aldred's car and for the fun evening we had together.