Mushroom Hunting

I went mushroom hunting with my friend Chris, and Chris' mushroom expert friend Zdenka. We drove to a UNESCO protected forest between Prague and Kutna Hora, not far from Mukarov.

I'll set the scene.....Absorlutely freezing day - first day of Winter after all and we were looking for a yellowy-brown mushroom amongst fallen yellowy-brown autumn beech leaves. Not an easy task, but after nearly 5 hours of searching we had filled a big basket. I also saw my first wild deer and we had an encounter with a very large boar(humungous is a more accurate description), which was stirred out of the bushes by one of Chris' dogs - Rosy. Luckily for us the boar lost interest in the chase and trundged back into the thicket. Zdenka then told me she usually carries a gun for such occasions...to shoot into the air. We then discussed Czech boars in depth, from the average amount of mushroom hunters injured each year...to whom could climb a tree the fastest.
The prized mushrooms are as big as your head. Our biggest was nearly as big as my hand.
We ran into a Czech man who had found a beauty and he let me photograph it after Zdenka told him that we have lots of sharks in Australia...but no mushroom hunting???
In the same forest you can fill up your water bottles from a natural spring.

The water was crystal clear and was very refreshing after 5 hours of hunting. As you can see by the path, it is a well used and respected spring all year round.