Time: 3 hours and 10 minutes
Distance: 9.6 kmStart: Car park at the Waipara River, Laidmore Road, Amberley
Finish: Same place (it's there and back more or less)
Date: Friday 10th January 2020
We turned off State Highway 1 direction Fiddlers Green Winery onto Ram Paddock Road then turned right onto Laidmore Road (at the quirky and slightly misplaced book swap) and continued on to where the road crosses the Waipara River. There is a small car park there with a tantalizing sign that mentions the K-T boundary and fossil penguins.
From the car park we walked direction east along the river - actually mostly in the river. It's a shock at first to get your feet wet but then you get used to it. The river bends and twists it's way to the gorge. Apparently this is not a walk to do after rain - but the river was low today and slimy with algae. The scenery is stunning with limestone outcrops up high. I am almost tempted not to add this to the blog least the secret get out.
It takes about 1.5 hours from the car park to the gorge (actually 1 hour and 29 minutes). About 15 minutes in you see the first set of concretions in the riverbed. These concretions are round spherical boulders containing remains of old plesiosauria and mesosauria (marine reptiles) from the mass extinction after the meteor hit the earth approximately 66 million years ago. The stuff of science (fiction?).
At the gorge there are trace fossils from zoophycos, a weird massive spiralling shell from a time when there was more oxygen in our atmosphere and things were bigger.
Some of us waded/swam through the gorge, then we had snacks and returned via the shortcut (too difficult to explain where that is). A thrifty 50 minute jaunt back to the car. We drove back to Zhanna and Kevin's house for yummy goat sausages and dukkha (thanks heaps!!)
