A walk in the wood.

Needed to blow some cobwebs away yesterday, so I headed to one of my favourite places, the New Forest. I have just bought a new camera (I'm a bit of a victim for cameras) and I wanted to try it out.



The name 'New Forest' is a bit of a misnomer, since it's actually quite ancient. It was created way back in 1079 by King William I (William the Conqueror). His Highness desired a private hunting ground and so his park was created at the cost of over 20 small settlements. Understandably, the people who were deposed from their land were not thrilled; it caused much resentment. Two of his sons later died in the forest, Prince Richard in 1081 and King William II (Rufus) in 11oo. It's said that their deaths were his punishment, although King William II is recorded as being a nasty piece of work.


The Rufus stone, where William II met his end, shot by an arrow from the bow of Sir Walter Tyrell, is not far from where I was walking. Sir Walter claimed that he was aiming at a stag when the arrow misfired and hit the surly rat-bag King. Er, yeah, OK. Sure. Whatever you say Wal....




This former Royal playground is now a National park, which covers over 200,000 acres. And no, I didn't try to walk the whole thing- As if!





As a matter of fact, I probably wouldn't have walked as far as I did (about 4 miles) if it wasn't for the fact that when I'd parked in the lay-by, there were several trucks there and the drivers were eating their lunch. They all watched me get my rucksack out of the car and climb over the stile. It must have looked as if I was off on a serious hike, whereas in fact I had thought I'd take a few photos and just, you know, doddle about a bit, before driving somewhere else. But once I realised I had an audience, well, I thought I'd better put a bit of effort into it. And so I marched off determindly, trying to look like that was my intention all along.







It was a beautiful sunny day when I left home, but this is England and the weather can change while you're looking at it- which it did. By the time I'd driven to the spot where I wanted to walk, some rather business-like clouds had rolled across the horizon.

The further I got from the car, the worse the clouds looked.

But the rain didn't start until I was in the forest itself, and the tree canopy acts like a lovely green umbrella. It's a beautiful place- it's tranquil, but at the same time, it gives a sense of wildness.


The name of this particular part of the New Forest is Bolderwood. It's near Fritham Common and the village of Lyndhurst (Lyndhurst claims to be the capital of the New Forest).

New Forest ponies.