New Forest

Date:
Location:
Walk Leader:
Participants:
Distance:
Parking:
Lunch:

9th September 2015
New Forest, Deer Sanctuary
Ray
Ray, Clive, Peter
7 miles
Deer Sanctuary car park
Queens Head, Burley  ★▲

Clive and Peter were frankly astonished when Ray announced that he had planned a walk in the New Forest.  We didn't even think he had a map of the area!  What's more he hardly erred all day.  A few hesitations but overall an excellent performance from our erstwhile leader.

Looking back towards Mogshade Hill

After a short stroll down the road we took a little diversion to look at the pond at Mogshade before heading along the track down to Stonard Wood.  This is a nice gentle downward slope with heather lining both sides of the track.

A little further on we cam across I rather strange looking dead tree.  It really looked as if the bracket fungi on it had been carefully placed to create a face.  After I got home I couldn't resist the temptation of playing with this in Photoshop. So here you can see two variations of the same tree.

The Original

You can see he was pleased to see us.  He became quite animated as we ambled by.

​I later received a special request asking if the tree could grow a tongue.  This was a challenge that had to be met so I produced the version on the right.  It has made some laugh and other's proclaim "it's horrible".  You can make up your own mind!

As we went down Hart Hill we spotted a bench with three plaques in memory of members of the Burnett family.  I took a picture of this as, no doubt, Rob will be interested to see their service history.  An enlargement may be needed!  Shame it was too early for a break.

The Burnett Bench

A Happy Bunch

We followed some good tracks across Acres Down although they are slightly at variance with those shown on the maps.  We stopped for a welcome break not far from Milford and then stayed inside Holmhill Inclosure following the fence line until we reached another main track.  The majority of the paths were actually quite dry and provided easy walking.

Before we knew it we were back at the car park fighting the urge to buy ice creams.  It was not that hot so the temptation was not that great and it would not be long before lunch at the Queens Head in Burley.  If we had known how long the wait was going to be at the pub we may have made a different decision.  The food was quite reasonable but the service was very slow even though the bar was quite empty.
A very pleasant walk unerringly led.  Well almost, just a few little errs!