El Camino de Lake Burley Griffin

In the initial version of this post all my images came up as black and white!  Somehow or another  my basic image editor (IRFANVIEW) had decided to set all JPEG files to save as grayscale.  It only took me about 90 minutes to work that out!  And of course another 30 minutes to relace all the images!

Today we were supposed to go to Tallong to look at lovely little orchids but the nefarious activities of the NSW RTA digging up the Hume Highway got in the way. {expletive deleted} But we had an alternative! 

From time to time we think about El Camino de Santiago de Compostela.  And then walkng 732km gets to look a bit difficult and we have a small dog to care for (and she wouldn't be able to come with us, much as she'd enjoy it). So instead, today we went for a 16km walk around the West basin of Lake Burley Griffin, taking the small dog.

We parked at the Yarralumla Nursery and headed towards Scrivener Dam.  As we crossed Dunrossil Drive near the entrance to the Governor-General's official residence we noticed a few car loads of genteel persons gathering.  Could they be political groupies gathering to cheer as Senator Carr went in to get the Vice-regal hug and kiss as Foreign Minister?  Nah: given her Queensland background, more likely Quentin's scone baking club, explaining why Bob didn't get the hug until 4:30!

On to Scrivener Dam, being surprised at the number of other folk out on foot and bike enjoying the lovely weather.  At the dam there was a warning sign.
 We did walk across above the outflow depicted and could detect no faecal scents.  Possible it is true: Queanbeyan poop don't stink!
 Cormorants were enjoying the fishing: probably catching carp not an anagram thereof.
It is possibly interesting that in this walk, and without unduly fussing about birding (ie if it sounded like a small brown bird burbling in a bush we ignored it and walked on), we recorded 31 species of birds.  Nothing greatly unusual, but a nice haul for the centre of the city!

 Here is a view of Quentin's backyard: no obvious signs of the scone bake-off yet!
A tortoise flagrantly ignored the warning signs.
  These two crap obviously wished they had chosen to swim somewhere else (although I think they were got by an angler rather than a blind mullet).
 Another warning sign!  Very close to some oaks in the Nara Peace Park (and also the Chinese Embassy)!
We didn't find any fungus here at all. Here is an interesting sculpture in the Peace Park, with an explanatory sign.

 
 A few Kms further on - near the intersection of Alexandrina Drive and Hopetoun Circuit - we found some more oaks with no sign but lots of Fungi.  I have sought advice on what they were!
It has been confirmed that these are Death Caps (Amanita phalloides). Very nasty stuff: appropriate people in Canberra TAMS (and elsewhere) have  been alerted.

I should probably note that the plethora of warning signs is probably more to do with the number of anally retentive (possibly not quite the right phrase for such a coliform enhanced post) lawyers around the place rather that Canberra being full of risks to life and limb

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