No fungi so far so we carried up the hillside to the old drovers track along the ridge. This is a very old track indeed - a 13th CE document calls it Alferode which conjures up visions of King Alfred riding along here ( before of after he famously burnt the cakes?).
The track meanders along the ridge with spectacular views in all directions and at last I spotted a fungus...
and soon afterwards some more. These were fascinating, emerging from a rift in the trunk like a series of rungs on a ladder. Definitely one I will need to look up later.
Alferode was getting busier, we must be getting near the car park at the top. The track itself is now quite sunken and edged with a raised bank on which many old beeches were growing. The view down these reminiscent of the bones of a rib cage with the way the trunks split and curve inwards.
At last the Triscombe Stone - quite small this one. Only some 2 ft or so high this is believed to date from the Bronze age and to be a marker stone on the old pathway. Unfortunately a modern car park now adjoins it - I guess the modern version of a travellers' meeting place?
This was almost the final objective. All that remained was to climb to the highest point in the Quantocks and admire the view from Will's Neck. And a very nice view too if rather impeded by the rain clouds. The coast was just about visible through the murk but even with binoculars the Severn Bridges were too shrouded to be seen. The back dots in the sky are ravens.
The route down was much quicker - straight down in fact. Very very steep in places and not helped in the woodland by a layer of slippery leaves on top of a layer of mud. Gave real meaning to the term "treehugger"! Still I only managed to sit down once.
As for finding Amanita? No luck at all. The search continues.
