Travel in style. Travel with ease. Travel by train. And put your iPhone away; you won’t need it here. We explore the rugged outback of south and west Australia aboard Great Southern Rail’s Indian Pacific.
A UN peacekeeper, a botanist, a musical theatre producer, an emergency department doctor and a mathematician walk into a restaurant.
It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it was actually the start of my trip on the Indian Pacific. My travel buddy and I were taking the train from Adelaide to Perth, and it all kicked off with dinner at the National Wine Centre.
We began with a tasting of some of SA’s best wines and cheeses among the wooden barrels, before settling in for a scrumptious three-course meal and an enthralling group discussion. This set the scene for the entire journey: delicious food and wine, fascinating company, and striking settings.
We’d been checked-in upon arrival at the Wine Centre and our carry-on luggage was already in our cabin when we embarked at Kent Town. The cabins are compact, so you’re advised to pack light, but they’re impeccably presented and well equipped.
Soon after finding our way to our cabin, we were greeted again by staff, introduced to our train manager Bruce (who basically became our bestie onboard) and offered a personal wake-up call for the morning – complete with tea or coffee.
This proved to be more than just a pleasant novelty, as we were determined to take in the sunrise each morning and that early caffeine burst was essential for making sure we could keep our eyes open before 6am.
As for that sunrise, it was so worth the early wakeup. As a total city slicker – and a millennial at that – I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen much of Australia’s rural landscapes before. In fact, the last time I saw those iconic expanses of red dirt and scrub, I was a surly teenager resentfully trudging along with my class on a high-school camp.
This time, with my phone signal long gone, I simply had to wind up the blind on my cabin window, cradle my (idyllically strong) cup of tea in my palms, and watch. All I could hear was the persistent rattle and whistle of the mammoth 774m train and an occasional pair of footsteps down the passageway as others received their own wake-up calls.
Eventually, it was time for breakfast – the first of our meals on-board. We were pre-emptively ready to sit down to a dry piece of toast or a travel pack of cereal; after all, surely there’s not much you can safely cook aboard a rattling train. Right? Wrong.
All aboard
Embark on a breathtaking rail journey across Australia with RAA.
Travel in style. Travel with ease. Travel by train. And put your iPhone away; you won’t need it here. We explore the rugged outback of south and west Australia aboard Great Southern Rail’s Indian Pacific.
A UN peacekeeper, a botanist, a musical theatre producer, an emergency department doctor and a mathematician walk into a restaurant.
It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it was actually the start of my trip on the Indian Pacific. My travel buddy and I were taking the train from Adelaide to Perth, and it all kicked off with dinner at the National Wine Centre.
We began with a tasting of some of SA’s best wines and cheeses among the wooden barrels, before settling in for a scrumptious three-course meal and an enthralling group discussion. This set the scene for the entire journey: delicious food and wine, fascinating company, and striking settings.
We’d been checked-in upon arrival at the Wine Centre and our carry-on luggage was already in our cabin when we embarked at Kent Town. The cabins are compact, so you’re advised to pack light, but they’re impeccably presented and well equipped.
Soon after finding our way to our cabin, we were greeted again by staff, introduced to our train manager Bruce (who basically became our bestie onboard) and offered a personal wake-up call for the morning – complete with tea or coffee.
This proved to be more than just a pleasant novelty, as we were determined to take in the sunrise each morning and that early caffeine burst was essential for making sure we could keep our eyes open before 6am.
As for that sunrise, it was so worth the early wakeup. As a total city slicker – and a millennial at that – I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t seen much of Australia’s rural landscapes before. In fact, the last time I saw those iconic expanses of red dirt and scrub, I was a surly teenager resentfully trudging along with my class on a high-school camp.
This time, with my phone signal long gone, I simply had to wind up the blind on my cabin window, cradle my (idyllically strong) cup of tea in my palms, and watch. All I could hear was the persistent rattle and whistle of the mammoth 774m train and an occasional pair of footsteps down the passageway as others received their own wake-up calls.
Eventually, it was time for breakfast – the first of our meals on-board. We were pre-emptively ready to sit down to a dry piece of toast or a travel pack of cereal; after all, surely there’s not much you can safely cook aboard a rattling train. Right? Wrong.