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Start of the forest track at Bolderwood car park

Pony grazing alone by the track

"This", I thought, "is going to be good", but we did not get off to a good start. It was a grey day with dark low cloud and persistent drizzle. We decided to drive around the area, which neither my wife nor I know at all, and explore the villages and towns before getting on with some good walks when the weather picks up.

This was the first morning of our week in the New Forest. I was awake early and watched a group of five fallow deer grazing in the field next to our holiday cottage as I sat on the settee drinking my cup of tea.

Dead birch tree covered in bracket fungus

Woodland path heading for Bolderwood Cottage

At the road we turned left to walk along the road for about 100m to a gate on the right. We went through the gate and followed a path through the woods for about 500m to the road near Bolderwood Cottage. This is the road that forms the Bolderwood Arboretum Ornamental Drive and there were frequent cars passing along it. We followed this road for about 400m back to the car park and had a look at the deer viewing platform on the left, near the car park entrance, but in mid afternoon there were no deer to be seen.

It was a dreary business trudging round in the rain, but in the afternoon the weather improved and we decided to have a little stroll as a taster for the rest of the week. We drove to the Bolderwood car park at map ref. SU243086. We crossed the road at the eastern end of the car park and set off down a forest track for about 100m to map ref SU244087. Here we turned right to follow a path down a firebreak to rejoin the forest track at map ref. SU246087. We turned right onto the track and followed it for about 500m to map ref. SU249085. At this point we turned right onto a track climbing up the wooded hill side back to the road at map ref. SU248082.

Pigs feeding on acorns and chestnuts in the forest