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After having returned to Anglesea from the tip of Cape York, only 36 hours previously, going from just over 10 degrees south of the equator to 38 degrees south, from a warm 28 degrees to a chilly 10 degrees, I wasn’t looking forward to the Fungi walk at Lake Elizabeth on Saturday 20th of July, but the day turned out fine and sunny and the fungi did their best to put on a good show, in the dank, wooded valley that the lake occupies.

Twenty one of the Friends enjoyed the walk around the Lake. Our number included the Crowcroft, Cook and Grabham families, who collectively made up half the participants. We also welcomed Mathieu Vaupres, a recently-joined member who was very interested in which of the fungi might be edible. Katie Rau, a Duke of Edinburgh activist, also joined us for another outing.

The group quickly became two groups, a fast one and a slow one, as Oliver Grabham, aged 8, and in the ‘slow’ group decided that he wasn’t about to let any fungus escape his eagle eye and so inspected every possible example of what ‘might’ be one.

oliverOliver fungi finding expert

katie photoKatie photographing coral fungus

fungi chartThe fungi chart was useful

Below are some kind of bracket fungus, a jelly fungus (probably Tremella fuciformis), and also golden curtain crust (probably Stereum ostrea), but I’m not a mycologist and I’ll leave identification to someone more expert than I am. These are just a small sample of those we observed.

bracket fungusBracket fungus

jelly fungusJelly fungus

orange fungusGolden Curtain Crust

Kim Attard was a serious observer. If I am asked to lead this activity next year, I’ll ask her to be my resident expert.

kimKim shares her knowledge

Even for those of us less keen on fungus spotting there was plenty to see.

lake lookoutAt the lake lookout

blackwood alistair Big old Blackwood

katie janetKatie and Janet enjoying the walk through the rainforest

The weather was perfect and the Lake looked beautiful.

Mathieu Ellen DebraMathieu chats with Ellen and Debra while waiting for slow group to catch up

lake elizabethLake Elizabeth framed with vegetation

Report by Patrick Flanagan