New Forest free-roaming ponies
With Corona pandemic still raging everywhere and international travel virtually impossible we are extremely happy to be posted in the UK right now and living in Wimbledon.
Because, let’s be honest, we’re pretty lucky with all the nature around us here. The Wimbledon and Putney Commons (1,140 acres/460 ha) are just 5 minutes away on foot from where we live and Richmond Park (2,500 acres/1.010 ha) a mere 15 minutes by bike.
And then we have shed-loads of some of the most beautiful, varied landscapes in the UK (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – AONB) and a few National Parks all over the place South & West of us and all this just a few hours by car away.
Honestly, there are so many gorgeous spots to discover. Expect blustery cliffs, misty moors, and mostly untouched landscapes that will inspire every traveler to the great UK outdoors.
Denny Wood – New Forest UK Southeast of Lyndhurst.
We thought no better time to visit the New forest than in autumn so that’s where our latest mini-trip took us. Barely 1 ½ h drive from Wimbledon.
About the name “New” Forest. Is it a recently created national park ? Well not at all. During the Norman period – some 900 odd years ago in 1079– this area was claimed as a royal hunting ground by William the Conqueror. And with these boundaries of the forest plotted out, it took it’s “new” name, becoming the “New Forest” and this name stuck ever since.
About 5 miles Southwest of Lyndhurst one of the things you can do is to get up close and personal with very imposing Redwoods and Douglas firs that call this stunning National Park home. Think sequoias in California but somewhat more modest 🙂
As we approached the famous Rhinefield Ornamental Drive we immediately saw that this was really not for us. Cars everywhere, parents pushing toddlers around in strollers, yapping dogs, bright yellow fluo-kids everywhere, yelling at the top of their lungs… Yikes ! the stuff our nightmares are made of!
But no worries: the New Forest is 566 km2 (219 sq mi) of pasture land, heath and forest. We continued for ten minutes more, turned into a small track towards a barely visible car park and voilà…miles and miles of peace and quiet waiting just for us.
Pigs grazing the forest for a few months each autumn
The New Forest is quite unusual in the UK as it’s still a working forest. Locals still make a living with the herds of pigs, ponies and cattle you can hardly miss at this time of year. Careful timber cutting helps to keep the canopy open to maintain the natural diversity of the woodland. It is also why you’ll see cattle and ponies grazing freely all year round, owned by locals (commoners). They have rights to graze their animals in certain parts of the forest and collect firewood. As they have done now for hundreds of years.
The right of pannage (the right of feeding pigs or other animals in a wood) allows pigs to graze the forest for a few months each autumn, feasting on acorns!
Our main objective for us to travel to the New Forest was to shoot photos of the fungi. The New Forest is one of the best places in Europe to see fungi during autumn. It’s a stronghold for many rare species, and has over 2,700 different varieties. And boy, were we spoiled!
But it didn’t stop there. When walking the heath towards the forest we immediately spotted several groups of ponies with the spring-born foals donning their first winter coats. These ponies are not wild horses so you can approach them easily and they usually won’t even take a second look at you.
But the nicest surprise came on the second day of our stay when we were exploring a more remote part of Ober Heath. Deer are notoriously shy animals and tend to keep to these quieter parts of the forest so we were like kids in a toy store when we saw a group of hinds at the edge of the forest about 1 mile away. It took us more than half an hour to sneak up on them as we had to approach over the heath where we were completely exposed. But all the odds were in our favor: we had the telelens with us, sun in our back, downwind from them and a few ponies keeping pace with us to mask our approach. And then we noticed the antlers of a huge stag resting in the ferns. A scene that made for a fantastic photo-op.
Once again – a fantastic mini-trip in the great UK outdoors.
If you’re interested, this time we stayed in a great AirBnb self-catered annex in Ampfield (Karen & Adrian’s) about half an hour away from the center of the New Forest, extremely nice hosts with plenty of local tips. And we had two delicious dinners in the local 16th century pub The White Horse (you can read our review here)
