A journalist by profession and an angler by inclination, Philip Bodeker and his wife Janice decided to second-mortgage their home and, accompanied by their three children, their cat and their dog, set off on a six-month-long fishing safari through the remote North-West of Australia, from their home town Perth to the tropical Kimberley, over 1,500 miles away.

The Sandgropers' Trail is mainly about mighty fish of the north, and the salty people who fish for them. The author and his family caught between them just about every type of fish there was to catch, from the giant kingfish of Carnarvon and the fighting freshwater barramundi to the tiny poontas of the pools and creeks in the desert interior.

Going on safari is becoming a popular pastime among adventurous Australians. Few, however, take along their two school-age children, one baby, a cat and a dog - then pick up a pet wallaby on the way. This the Bodekers did, and the author's account of their adventures makes a warm, humourous, and sharply-observed introduction to a region of Australia which, in spite of ever-new evidence of its vast mineral potential, retains a rough and ready, devil-may-care character all its own.

For anglers of all ages and sizes this book will constitute a challenge to test their skills against the giant fish of the North-West; for fireside readers it is a rare account of a most enterprising family walkabout.

Philip Bodeker, is in his own words 'a fishing nut'. He is a television personality and a person well-known in his home state of Western Australia for his contributions to the sport of angling.