We Are on a Short Road Trip to Cobram

I picked up my replacement car last Thursday. It is a very nice BMW X1. It’s a little smaller than the car that I sold back to the dealer but it’s very well equipped and nice to drive. It’s just about the right size for us and much easier for Jill to get into and more comfortable for her.

We had planned a few days in the Murray River town of Cobram and it was a pleasant to drive this new car.

Our first stop was at Nagambie which is charming, lakeside town in north-central Victoria. It has a very wide main street and is located at the southern end of the Goulburn Valley between Seymour and Shepparton. The town is dominated by Lake Nagambie which lies beside the main street and provides waters for recreational boating and bird watching.

On the shore of the lake is a statue of the famous racecourse, Black Caviar. In fame, this horse rivals Pharlap, Australia’s most famous horse of the 1930s. She was born at Gilgai Farm near Nagambie. As a champion mare she then went on to become the fastest horse in the world, undefeated in every race.” Black Caviar won 25 out of 25 races and won almost $8 million in prize money.

Located near Nagambie, on the Goulburn River, is Chateau Tahbilk – Victoria’s oldest family-owned winery and vineyard and one of the oldest in the country. I believe that it takes its name from the local Daung-wurrung Aboriginal expression “tahbilk tahbilk” meaning a place of many waterholes. It covers 1,214 ha of Goulburn River riverflats and has 11 km of river frontage on the Goulburn River. The property is noted for its exotic trees. It was established in 1860 and a 100 metre long cellar was added in 1875. The stone and timber buildings have a charming rustic feel, with an impressive 30 metre high belltower, a particular architectural highlight.

A run of historic workers cottages adds to its historic appearance and atmosphere. I bought a few bottles of uncommon white wines that have a distinctive taste – Marsanne and Viognier. Now I’ll have to find a special time to open them.

The GPS voice in this car has an amusing way of emphasising the wrong syllable in the place names of some of the little towns that we travelled through. I can’t replicate the pronunciation in writing but little towns like ’Katamatite’ came out very strangely.

In Katamatite, we came across a relatively new piece of silo art. The number of these painted disused silos are increasing and now add to the tourist attraction of many local areas.

It was not much further to the RACV Report at Cobram where we are starting for two nights. Our plan is to explore this area tomorrow and then find a different route home on Wednesday.