Saturday, 23 March 2024
As part of my start-breathing-better walks and my keep my mind active campaign, I continued with another walk-stroll-hike jaunt on Saturday afternoon. The route chosen was the southern embankment of the Otaki River between the parking lot at the SH1 westwards to the river mouth. The last section of the path was excluded, because it isn't open to the public, as it covers private farming property.
(Above) The pathway runs along a strip of land between the left bank of the river and fenced-off sheep/cattle/orchard farming properties. The trees above provide very welcome shade on hot days, but progress through these sections could be quite a bit slower than the gravel surface.
(Above) Although motor vehicles are not permitted anywhere along the embankment, this single-lane gravel service path runs the entire length of this walk. This is useful during rainy periods when townies like me try to tramp along tgrough what would otherwise be muddy pathways wearing puny shopping shoes
(Above) After a couple of hundred meters, I turned around for this picture of the start of this trail at the old bridge for road traffic (still in use)
(Below) i stopped and enjoyed the complicated patterns on this embankment where the exposed tree root formation and varied layers of silt, sand and rocks caught my eye.
