Anatini

<p>Geopark - Sasha – Anatini 2020</p> <p><strong>Real Radio: </strong>Time to talk Geopark once again, joined by the. Geoeducator Sasha Morriss. Now, Sasha, what are we talking about this week?</p> <p><strong>Geoeducator: </strong>Yeah, hi. This week I'm going to be talking just briefly about a geosite that many may have heard of, but not necessarily visited. It's called Anatini.&nbsp; Now Anatini actually means 'many caves', and it's just a few minutes up the road from Elephant Rocks. Often you go to Elephant Rocks - there are lots of people there. But you go up the road to Anatini and there's not a lot of visitors there at the moment. Last time I was there, there was a family there having a wee look around. But it's a pretty interesting sight to go through. And despite it still being Otekaike Limestone. It's quite a different experience going to the site. So to find it - it's just up the road. And it's well signposted. You go through a little farm gate, down a wee track. And then this kind of gorge opens up in front of you and you follow a little track with some stairs down into the gorge. And it's almost like you can envisage that you are at the bottom of the sea floor. There's limestone cliffs all around you and you can have a good wee hunt for some fossils. When I was there I found a bivalve that was still encased in the rock - bivalve, meaning two valves, two sides to it. And at the far end, there is a protected case - and underneath that is a baleen whale skeleton.&nbsp; So you can go there and actually see - "oh, wow, this whale used to swim around in this area". It's mind blowing. It's awesome. So how accessible is it? Really accessible. So you need to park on the side of the road and be careful crossing the road because it can get very busy. It is a gravel track. And then there are kind of another gravel track down into the site with some stairs. So it's not accessible for wheelchairs or strollers, but kids can do it and adults who are able.&nbsp; Just, you know, normal precautions of not climbing on th