| Date: Location: Distance: Parking: Lunch: | 15 November 2018 The Deer Sanctuary, Bolderwood 5.3 miles Large Car Park Cat and Fiddle, Hinton Admiral |
The leaves are all turning and it seemed a good idea to head to the New Forest making sure we could avoid the long hold upas on the A338 on the way home. We settled on the Deer Sanctuary going via Ringwood but returning via Christchurch and this worked pretty well.
Although there was a plan we made up most of this walk as we went just taking paths that looked interesting and led in the right sort of direction!
This provided an opportunity to see the small pond near Mogshade Hill which looked as if it might be a great place for Dragonflies in the summer.
We were rather disappointed to find that the “human tree” we had last seen in September 2015 is now looking very sad and no longer wants to wink at anyone. Click this link to "See him in his heyday".
Although there was a plan we made up most of this walk as we went just taking paths that looked interesting and led in the right sort of direction!
This provided an opportunity to see the small pond near Mogshade Hill which looked as if it might be a great place for Dragonflies in the summer.
We were rather disappointed to find that the “human tree” we had last seen in September 2015 is now looking very sad and no longer wants to wink at anyone. Click this link to "See him in his heyday".
 At The Start |  Oak In Autumn |  The Sad Tree |  What A Bunch |
 View From Burnetts' Bench |  On A Gate Post |  Spot The Deer |
 I Can See It |  Just A Fern |  At The End |
Following the path between Stonard Wood and Hart Hill we spotted two holly trees that had the most amazing clusters of berries, even worthy of a photo. We had planned things carefully enough to ensure that we reached the Burnett’s beautifully positioned bench at roughly our half way point just in time for drinks, bananas and biscuits.
We continued to wander along tracks on a somewhat random basis and all went well until we tried to cross Highland Water in Hollywood Inclosure. The water was just that much too wide to jump across and too deep to wade through so we had to retrace our steps a few yards. We then took an unmarked track to our left and this took us back to the cycle track. We followed this for a few more yards before turning off again onto minor tracks. These took us almost all the way back to our starting point. Although it was only 5.3 miles Ray said it felt much longer!
We took advantage of the Early Bird offer at the Cat and Fiddle Harvester and had a very good lunch with nice friendly service. With the excellent 33⅓ % reduction in the prices (not now advertised on the menu) it becomes very good value and a nice surprise if you did not know about it.
We continued to wander along tracks on a somewhat random basis and all went well until we tried to cross Highland Water in Hollywood Inclosure. The water was just that much too wide to jump across and too deep to wade through so we had to retrace our steps a few yards. We then took an unmarked track to our left and this took us back to the cycle track. We followed this for a few more yards before turning off again onto minor tracks. These took us almost all the way back to our starting point. Although it was only 5.3 miles Ray said it felt much longer!
We took advantage of the Early Bird offer at the Cat and Fiddle Harvester and had a very good lunch with nice friendly service. With the excellent 33⅓ % reduction in the prices (not now advertised on the menu) it becomes very good value and a nice surprise if you did not know about it.
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