Saturday 26th November 2011
This years delayed Mushroom outing once again was well attended, with about 15 gonhs members and 10 guests of our Spanish hosts and Guides Manolo Barcell or Eduardo Briones meeting at the venta, El Frenazo, on the old road out of Los Barrios we sorted ourselves into 4 wheel drives and went deep into the park, further than ever before, where we dispersed into the cork oaks spending an hour or so mushroom hunting and for the birders amongst us getting good views of Griffon Vultures, Booted eagle, Common buzzards, Raven, Robins, Blackcaps, Crested Tits, Chiffchaffs, to name a few. We also found lots of fungi the majority being the wrong kind, but lots of lovely edible specimens were found by our Spanish experts. We gathered together and Eduardo sorted our finds into edible, not so edible and best avoided categories giving us lots of interesting information about the different species, he also explained the importance of using wicker baskets to collect the mushrooms in so that the spores fall through the holes to enable future germination.
It was now lunch time and although some of our party had to return to Gibraltar the rest of us traveled deeper into the reserve , parked up and our hosts produced from their cars a table, chairs sherry, red wine, chorizo, sheep’s cheese, torta patata, jamon of various types, and we spent a very pleasant time sharing our lunches eating, drinking, and enjoying in the surrounding beauty, we finally packed up and made our way back leaving our Spanish friends to carry on collecting more delicacies.
The weather was fabulously sunny and mild; the scenery was stunning the company fantastic so a big thank you to all who attended and of course to our hosts.
Jill Yeoman
Photos by Linda Malay
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