Middle Waipara River

Saturday 20 January 2024

The promise of a water trip on this hot day, and interesting geological features lured sixteen keen trampers to the Waipara River inland from Amberley. After placing a car at Boby Stream on Ram Paddock Road we walked upstream from Laidmore Road. Soon we were at strata thought to be laid down 66 million years ago when a cataclysm deposited a thin layer of iridium-rich fallout world-wide. The deposit wasn’t obvious to us. Deposits 10 million years later were visible, corresponding to a time when CO2 and global temperatures went skyward. The period is known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).

Soon we waded towards large concretions that are being eroded from slopes and tumbling down. They are truly impressive. We didn’t walk further in the hope of seeing the marine reptile bones that can be found upstream, and instead walked back to our starting point for an early lunch in the shade of a willow tree.

On the march again we went with the river flow, seeing more nice concretions and passing an area where shark teeth have been found. The deep wade where the gorge narrows was at waist level for taller people—lower than usual. Some of the group had a swim or deeper dip. The plan from there was to exit to farmland near Boby Stream but clematis and gorse obscured the exit we used six years ago, so we carried on to The Deans. The drivers then had a hot road walk to the car we’d positioned.

The team enjoying a hot, wet, interesting day in limestone country was: Darcy Mawson, Tanya Jacobson, Sha SG, Diane Mellish, Bill & Wendy Templeton, Chris Leaver, Graham Townsend, Peter Umbers, Terry Thomsen, Evelien Baas, Sue & Mark Piercey, Kim Ashmore, John Robinson and Kerry Moore    [KM]