By Cherie Theissen

How to choose between the Ghan, traveling from south (Adelaide) to north (Darwin) or The Indian Pacific, slicing across the continent from Western Australia (Perth) to Victoria (Sydney)? It was wine that helped my partner, David and me, decide.

We would board at Perth, a pretty city on the Swan River, surrounded by 40 wineries, revered for their Chenin Blancs, Verdelhos and Rosés. The perfect way to try them was on board Captain Cook Cruises’ River Lady, an excursion that featured winery visits, a 3-course gourmet lunch, non stop on-board wine tastings, and music, music, music. The next day we would embark on the Indian Pacific, leaving it at Adelaide, a journey of some 44 hours, in order to cycle a little of the Riesling Trail and sample some of those prize winning Clare Valley Rieslings.
Our plan was perfect; the Swan River Cruise sublime. There’s nothing better than a indolent day on a idyllic river sampling wines, followed the next day by a leisurely train journey, chatting with fellow travelers over gourmet meals while an outback panorama unreels beyond the window, and kangaroos bounce by.

Forty years ago the Indian Pacific made its first trip – rolling 4352 kilometers from Perth to Sydney. It’s been pretty much chugging along, 4 days a week from either direction, ever since. Now, however, it’s got me aboard, and I’m eager for lunch. In the meanwhile, outside our window, the Avon valley meanders past.

Our luncheon companion is a friendly ex-army man from Perth. Eventually we start in on politics, helped by another glass of verdehlo, a wine worth discovering. It slips down like silk alongside the sea trout with hollandaise sauce and asparagus.

We finish coffee and politics as the valley terrain falls away to flat wheat fields and eventually to mallee scrub, a type of eucalpyt found only ‘down under’, according to our companion, who suddenly points: “Those roos are everywhere. Damn pests.” “Where, where?” I follow his finger. “Just gone behind them rocks.” Drat!

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