Winter Days Diary - Telegraph Woods in White
10 January 2009
I have written about this lovely woodland previously (please click on the label at the bottom of the page for more about Telegraph Woods) so I thought I would simply upload some pictures. It was a little milder, by about a degree, and the heavy frost made the whole world look absolutely stunning.
Winter Days Diary - ... it is (still) very cold
7th January 2009And out again! Greyer than yesterday, apparently a degree or two above freezing but felt colder, yet the day had a good feel to it. I'd actually planned a different kind of day, although those former plans had included a walk. Instead, I phoned my parents and invited them out which they accepted.
First of all into town again to get Dad some new walking shoes while Mum phoned the local council to sort them out ... again.
After a bite of warm lunch and armed with a flask of coffee and gingersnap biscuits, we set off.
All the walks I'd tried to plan were all about 5 or 6 miles, a little too much for someone who's still convalescing after heart surgery so in the end I decided the Tall Trees Trail (aborted from yesterday) would be ideal, with a look-in at the Blackwater Arboretum.
We parked at Blackwater Car Park, where you are encouraged to make a donation (£2 is suggested). There was no wind under the trees and despite the sharp air it was a lovely walk through towering conifers with their branches drooping under the weight of their dark green "skirts". There is a bomb crater towards the end of the first part of the walk (assuming the start north from the car park). During WWII this part of the Forest was used as a munitions store. Presumably it was a small bomb or grenade that blew accidentally rather than the result of a bomb dropped from the air as it is not a terribly big crater. There are also great bushes of rhododendrons along the path.
Just after this, you cross the road for the return path. The trees are closer here and the Forest beyond the Trail to the right is more densly packed with fewer paths leading off. The Trail winds along a narrower way with a hedge of dark-leaved rhododendrons shielding the path from the road. It is quite a romantic walk, and I am looking forward to seeing it in the spring when the rhododendrons are in full flower.
About half way along this part of the Trail, a wide ride heads off on the right and is flanked on either side by two giant sequioas with huge red trunks and tops tapering into the sky high above anything else near them. They are not the tallest tree on the Trail, however. There is a redwood a little further on which is as tall as two Nelson Columns.
The path winds on to a pretty wooden bridge and bends around and out through wooden railings. Here, you can turn left back across the road to the car park, or turn right up to the Arboretum which is accessed from this side by a beautifully constructed wooden gateway. The Arboretum contains many different trees and is a sensory garden. That is, you are encouraged to touch and smell the trees as well as look at them. I have seen the Arboretum in all its summer glory, and although it seemed a little sad under the cold grey sky with leaves strewn on the ground, it is still my ideal for my own private garden with a little cottage attached that has dog-roses growing around the door, and numerous cats running about the place.
My Dad saw a sign by one tree with a hand-sign and the word "Bark" - so he did ... *sigh!* Can't take him anywhere.
As Dad was now starting to get tired, we left the Arboretum and returned to the car for coffee and biscuits. Mum and I went down to the little river, either Black Water or Fletchers Water, and took pictures of the ice-lined water with ferns and Forest beyond on both sides.
After which we headed for home and I made a mental note that for my next excursion I would come out to White Moor and go exploring over that intriguing bit of countryside the very next opportunity I get.
Winter Days Diary - A New Forest Walk
6th January 2009It was a beautiful sunny day and cold. Yesterday, I went into town shopping for more warm winter walking gear and thanks to the sales found some excellent bargains. Today was a day for trying some of them out. Therefore I dressed appropriately, chose a walk and off I went.
My destination was Anderwood, approximately mid-way between the Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary to the north and Rhinefield Ornamental Drive to the south. My aim was to walk first to the Deer Sanctuary and then down along Bolderwood Ornamental Drive into Rhinefield OD and around the Tall Trees walk with a quick visit to Blackwater Arboretum. This would have taken the best part of a day.
I was late leaving home ...
Anderwood itself is a pleasant place for picnicking and ambling around pine trees. There is a picnic and barbecue area, and a public convenience. Being the middle of winter and temperature around 0 degrees C, however, the only people were hardy walkers and cyclists.
The walk began promisingly enough, up through the trees beyond a gate to the north. Before reaching the cycle track further on there was an interesting path (aren't they all?) going down through the trees to the cycle track visible below. A Forest stream, Blackensford Brook, crosses the path and is easily forded which is always more fun than being provided with a bridge, although I am partial to bridges over water as well.
I turned right along the cycle track intent on getting to the Deer Sanctuary.
I hesitate to describe any part of the New Forest as dull, but if there is such a place this is it. The track is dead straight through a pine inclosure with little relief except perhaps the promise of more interesting things along paths to right and left. On closer inspection it would seem that the side paths promise wading of near knee-deep proportions. I don't mind a bit of mud, it can be a lot of fun these were clearly more bridlepath than footpath. To my disgrace, I turned around back the way I had come and returned to Anderwood Car Park. I'd walked three miles judging by my watch and it seemed like barely one.
Nothing daunted, I decided to stop for a cup of tea at the car and try again. Fortified by this and a biscuit, I ventured across the road to another gate heading south. Apart from another wide mud-river that led to a wire fence, presumably to keep people from crossing the A35 at this point, this was quite a pleasant walk around Dames Slough Inclosure. (By the way, I fell over jumping a ditch off the afore-mentioned mud river - that is, I fell up the side of the ditch. The mud missed my gaiters completely and covered the knees of my trousers ...) There was another stream, Black Water, to ford which I managed without falling over, getting wet or in any other way mucking it up.
I didn't attain either of my goals - the Deer Sanctuary or the Tall Trees Walk -but I did get two hours walking out of the afternoon and a successful test of my new winter wear.
Winter Days Diary - The air bites shrewdly ...
5th January 2009A grey day with a bitter north-easterly wind. I'd promised Dad a walk in the New Forest and he chose Hatchett Pond with a walk around the disused airfield on Beaulieu Heath. Hatchett Pond was QI being partially frozen with ducks and sea-birds stood on the ice all looking cold and disgruntled. A pair of swans were making "feed me" gestures at a chap who was just getting out of his car. Swans are huge beasties when they stretch up their necks - they were nearly as tall as the man.
We set off along the B3055 (to Brockenhurst) for about 3/4 mile to the entrance to the concrete flattened diamond path which is now used by walkers, horse-riders and cyclists. Faced with a choice, we turned right.
Note to self: when in doubt choose the rule of the labyrinth - always turn left!
It was very open and very raw, and unfortunately further than we had both thought. Had we turned left, the way would have been shorter with the wind more behind us.
It was when we turned along the south path of the walk that the wind in all its unpleasant strength and chill factor did for Dad's stamina. He decided to park himself in the lee of some thick gorse while I as the stronger walker went hotfoot (that's a laugh!) back up the B3054 to fetch the car from Hatchett Pond car park.
After much cursing the wind, my recalcitrant legs that wouldn't walk fast enough (I don't do the "r" word) and ponies in the path alongside the pond that looked rather mournfully at me, I got to the car, at last. In two minutes I had picked up Dad, who had been cheerfully watching bunnies playing in and out of the gorse, and we sat and drank hot coffee and munched on caramel snack bars before heading for home.
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