This was a very pleasant day out – an outing with Valerie and Sue around the full circuit of Sassafras Gully.
After catching a trian to Springwood and then a coffee stop, we entered the gully via the track down to Fairy Dell and followed it along Magdala Creek to Glenbrook Creek, then walked upstream to The Lagoon and out via the track to Sassafras Gully Road. This was an fair walk with quite a few stops to look for fungi and other things.
There was not a huge abundance of fungi out – we had to look carefully for what we found.
Hypholoma sp.
Clavulinopsis sulcata
Mycena sp.
Boletellus deceptivus
Lactifluss sp.
Unknown –
Russula rosea
Austropaxilus infundinuliformis
Inocephalus virescens group
Gymnopilus sp.
Inocephalus virescens group
Ramaria sp.
Ramaria sp.
Bolete
Ramaria sp.
Entoloma sp.
Lactifluss sp.
Bolete
And I was pleased to finally match the location of a cave that appears in an old photo of Blue Mountains Photographer Harry Phillips –
Lower down, near both Magdala and Martins Falls there was some new track work –
We had lunch at the junction of Glenbrook Creek and then proceeded upstream.
Cyptotrama asprata
Hygrocybe sp.
Along this section are some very tall Turpentine trees –
Hygrocybe sp.
The Lagoon
Russula sp.
Cortinarius sp.
Trogia sp.
Russula rosea
Tylopilus ballouii with fungal gnat –
Inocephalus virescens group
Hygrocybe sp.
Then, at landslide, in the debris, we came across lot of these large cup fungi. I thus they are likely to be Aleuria aurantia, but some others have felt there are too yellow in colour. I am not sure what the natural variation is? It disinteresting, that the year before, I spotted Aleuria aurantia in another (older) landslide upstream on the other side of the creek. That was certainly more orange than these ones –
Drechmeria gunnii
Hygrocybe sp.
Clavaria fragilis
Mycena sp.
Austroboletus niveus
Near the top of the track, not far before it reaches Sassafras Gully Road, we looked at the Paddy The Dog memorial engraving. We used a small lamp to try and make it more legible.
Thanks to Valerie and Sue for great company on the walk.
Unrelated but interesting: The Wolgan Road has been closed since November 2022 at Wolgan Gap. An emergency road has just been bulldozed along the “monkey steps”, but is accessible only with escort. $30 million in funding secured to create a new road. The old one cannot be repaired. Lots of interesting writing on Lithgow council website: https://council.lithgow.com/?s=wolgan+road&et_pb_searchform_submit=et_search_proccess&et_pb_include_posts=yes&et_pb_include_pages=yes
There is 4 wheel access from the glow worm when the river is low. No 2 wheel access to the valley. Will be the situation for years.