The New Forest | - Click on the image above to view gallery
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 The New Forest is a former royal hunting area in the south of England. It was created in 1079 by William I (William the Conqueror) as a hunting area, principally of deer. It is not necessarily a wooded area in the modern meaning - nearly half the New Forest is open heath, grassland and bog. It is a unique area and one where the pasturing of ponies, cattle, pigs and donkeys in the open Forest by local inhabitants known as commoners goes on now just as it has for hundreds of years. It is this practice that keeps the forest looking the way it does.
It had been many years since we spent any time in the New Forest and we had just a day and a half to do so, so we spent time visiting some of the areas we had visited in the past and walked some of the paths we remembered from that time. One of the most popular places to visit and walk is the Bolderwood and Rhinefield ornamental drives where there are many signposted footpaths
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 Knightwood Oak
Because we visited in early April none of the deciduous trees had many of their new leaves so they still looked very bare and nowhere could I find any spring flowers on show. I wondered if the lack of spring flowers was due to the grazing of horses or deer preventing anything growing and when I looked this up on one of the New Forest websites this was indeed confirmed. I guess I’m used to our local woodlands looking very different, but because there were no leaves on the trees it did seem very bare in places.
When we were walking around the ornamental drives enjoying the different trees we became aware of huge quantities of dust in the air and when we got back to the car it was covered in a layer of dust. We found out that this was actually cedar pollen in the air. It did mean I had to be extra careful with my camera though as even just walking around I noticed lots of the minute particles on it. I was very careful to clean it off and decided that changing lenses was a bad idea unless I was in the car - I definitely didn’t want this stuff getting inside the camera.
A visit to Bolderwood Drive isn’t complete unless you visit the deer viewing platform. It’s not guaranteed but as a park ranger feeds the deer each day it’s quite likely you will get good views of just some of the many Fallow Deer living in the forest. When we visited we counted about 50 grazing on the grass fairly close to the viewing platform, including a white stag.
 Fallow Deer  White Fallow Deer Stag
One very worrying notice we did find told us of the threat of the fungal disease ramorum dieback (sudden oak death). It appears that an initial outbreak of the disease was found on five rhododendron bushes growing near the Tall Trees Trail, on the Rhinefield Drive. These bushes have been removed and the area has been fenced off. To help prevent the spread of the pathogen the Forestry Commission request that people follow a few guidelines, which include keeping to the footpaths, keeping dogs on leads, not removing any plant material from the area and cleaning footwear and animals before visiting other areas. I really hope that these measures are enough to stop the spread of the disease. When we got home our boots were disinfected just to be sure we don’t help spread it across the country.
The New Forest ponies are also delightful to see as they constantly seem to be grazing on the grass or even eating the gorse flowers as I saw one do. There were a few young foals too and I watched one mare having a really difficult job controlling a particularly frisky foal. These ponies can be seen almost anywhere, but more frequently on the open heath.  Bucklers Hard  Beaulieu River
Before we drove home we spent a morning visiting the delightful Bucklers Hard, an 18th century village where warships for Nelson’s army were built, including his favourite ship HMS Agamemnon. We enjoyed visiting the museum where we saw Nelson’s baby clothes and displays telling the story of the village. We then enjoyed a walk alongside the river for a while although sadly as we had to drive home we couldn’t go very far. Before we went home we had lunch in the very nice bar down by the waterfront and we sat outside in the warm sunshine to eat the best watercress soup I think I’ve ever tasted. All in all it had been a great few days away but it was sadly over all too quickly.
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Gary ....