Hampshire: Forest of dreams

IT’S a very curious sensation arriving in the New Forest from the M27. One moment we’re trundling alongside all the other weekend traffic. A split second later and we’re enveloped by the Hampshire forest.

The transportation from a blurred outlook over a noisy motorway to a quintessentially English image of sun-dappled glades, where ponies and cattle roam, really is that quick.

Within minutes we’re pony-spotting (easy, as there are about 3,000 in the forest) and on the lookout for deer (just a little more difficult). By the time we arrive at the first of our two camp sites, Red Shoot Camping Park, we’ve noticed so many likely-looking trails to follow that I’m left wondering where to start.

I’d been told that the New Forest is a walkers’ and cyclists’ paradise, with mile-upon-mile of car-free woodland paths criss-crossing the national park. This is no exaggeration and it’s perfect for camping. There’s a huge choice of sites, some in heathland clearings, others among oak trees or in ancient beech woods.

We take off on deer safaris through the gorgeous scenery. Another woodland wander from Red Shoot takes us to Lyndhurst, the very busy ‘capital’ of the forest. Then it’s on to Minstead, where Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle is buried, and Burley, where ponies wander up and down the street.

One of the open-top New Forest Tour buses whisks us off to some of the forest’s tourist attractions. There’s Beaulieu, home to the National Motor Museum, Palace House and Abbey Ruins; and Exbury Gardens, home to the world-famous Rothschild collection of plants and trees. The other great thing about these buses, besides the high-rise view, is that they can also take up to four bikes. Armed with day passes, we hop on and off.

At Beaulieu, we board a replica 1912 London bus. It’s a bit of a bone-shaker this, rattling us towards the abbey and skirting the Victorian gardens. A much smoother monorail glides us through the enormous hangars of the motor museum, crammed with more than 250 vehicles.

When we disembark at Exbury Gardens we’re transported through this colourful paradise in an altogether different manner. Our first tour, taking in the Summer Lane Garden, orchards and sunflower garden, is by steam train. Halfway round the driver gets off, swaps his cap for a heavy white suit and full-head visor. The reason? He has to feed his bees. Their honey can be bought at the shop.

Our second tour is by electric buggy. The driver whisks us up and down winding paths under the tree canopy, past the famous Rothschild Collection of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and rare trees. We crane our necks at the vast Monterey Pines, furnished with boxes to attract the rare Bechstein’s bat.

There’s a sundial garden full of vibrant colour, bog, iris and heather gardens. The rock garden is the largest in Europe and some badgers have set up residence in it. We eat our picnic by one of the ponds, watched by koi carp. Our chauffeur warns us that they will “eat anything”. The carp swarm to meet us. The biggest of them is 32 inches. Close by, in the long grass, we can see where deer have been sleeping, squashing the orchids.

My daughter, Sophie, spends most of her time cooing over the countless ponies during our stay in the forest. She constantly has to be reminded that they are not as friendly as they appear. There are notices everywhere warning that these animals bite. With hindsight, I was a bit naïve about them. The manager at our second camp site at Ashurst tells us how he has to warn people not to keep food in tents as the ponies have learned how to unfasten the zips. “Before you know it, there are six of them in there,” he grins. Still a bit cynical about this, I ask how many times a day this happens. He says, very seriously, “six or seven”.

There are two pony incidents at Ashurst while we are there – one in which a tent camper woke up to the sound of munching after his wife had gone to the toilet block and left the tent flap open. The culprit? A pony trying to pop open a multi-pack of Quavers. A similar incident involved a late-sleeper whose friends had already gone out. He was astonished to find ponies stepping carefully over him.

It’s quite difficult to avoid the ponies. We cross the road from Red Shoot, where cattle grids prevent the animals from straying on to the site, and head up a slope to open heath. Dozens of them are clustered around a small pond.

Returning to denser forest, we hear chomping and spot movement in the bushes hoping it’s a deer, but it’s more ponies. We’ve been told that Bolderwood is the best place to spot fallow deer.

We’re not disappointed. As we near a viewing platform, we see them in the meadow below. They’re certainly not shy creatures. They’re used to being fed daily by one of the rangers. Some of them, we notice, are white, quite uncommon for fallow deer.

Bolderwood is one of the forest’s most popular spots for a picnic. A large, flat grassy area has been fenced off to keep the ponies from interrupting lunch.

There are logs dotted about with recesses cut in to them to hold disposable barbecues. We make a mental note to return, armed with some of the local produce, though not perhaps the New Forest venison.

We have to visit Longdown Activity Farm to get up really close to other animals. This is where the fun begins. It’s meant to be an educational experience for Sophie to learn about milking and farming methods, but also turns out to be a hilarious one. It’s all thanks to being given the task of feeding goats and kids. We sit down on haystacks armed with our baby bottles of milk.

The gates open and dozens of tiny goats charge at us. They shove each other out of the way in their haste. The adult goats are just as crazy, but at least they are behind barriers. Just as well, for when the photographer bends his head to help Sophie, a goat starts munching on his hat.

With the weather in our favour, we head for the seaside around the New Forest. The park’s not all trees and heaths and meadows, but beaches and marinas, quays and cliffs, too.

At Lepe Country Park, near Exbury, we’re treated to stunning views over the Solent. At Barton on Sea we go on a fossil-finding expedition.

At Lymington we try our hand at crabbing, having been informed it’s one of the best places on the south coast for just that. It is, but we put them back.

The tourist brochures wax lyrical about the New Forest being one of the last places in the south of England to offer a sense of wildness and tranquillity; that it leaves visitors with the sense of a place unmoved by the centuries. With no fences and animals just wandering about, I have to agree. There is, indeed, a feeling of a timeless landscape.

ESSENTIAL FACTS

GENERAL INFORMATION
www.thenewforest.co.uk
www.thenewforesttour.info
www.exbury.co.uk
www.longdownfarm.co.uk
 
CAMP SITE INFORMATION
Ashurst Caravan Park and Camping Site, Lyndhurst Road, Ashurst SO40 7AR www.campingintheforest.co.uk
Red Shoot Camping Park, Linwood, Near Ringwood BH24 3QT www.redshoot-campingpark.com
WHAT ELSE TO SEE AND DO
Breamore House and Countryside Museum, near Fordingbridge. Magnificent Elizabethan manor house. www.breamorehouse.com
Bucklers Hard, Beaulieu estate. Relax on a trip up the Beaulieu river. www.bucklershard.co.uk
New Forest Museum & Visitor Centre, Lyndhurst. For all forest facts. www.newforestcentre.org.uk