Exploring The New Forest

By the beginning of the 18th century, the shipbuilding industry turned to the New Forest for its oak, stripping it to the extent that over the next 200 years, replanting had to be undertaken. Look out for the Knightwood Oak near the car park on the right as you approach the A35 — it’s reputedly the oldest in the forest at more than 600 years, and its girth is over 24 feet. At the A35, a short detour eastbound brings you to the New Forest Reptile Centre which has eight open-air pens that display examples of the reptiles and amphibians living in Britain, including adders, toads and sand lizards. It is not at all like a zoo, as the open-air pens are simply Make time to take a gentle boat trip covered with a net from Buckler’s Hard Returning to the A35, you’ll find the Rhinefield Ornamental Drive which weaves you through some of the tallest conifers in Britain, including Douglas firs, redwoods and spruces. Part way down is Rhinefield House — a bizarre-looking Victorian creation that can only be described as half-castle, half-house.

It wasn’t until I reached White Moor that we came across my first sighting of the free- running New Forest ponies — and there were dozens of them, clustered in small herds here and there. Pony ‘drifts’ are held each year in late summer and autumn, when commoners and agisters ride out across the forest and round them up. They’re herded into a pound, their tails snipped by the agisters as a receipt of the annual marking fee and ponies are branded to determine their ownership. By 6pm, I took the coniferous forest trail back to Lyndhurst. As I mentioned before, if you need the traffic signs in the heart of the forest, it’s difficult to explore to any great stretch from behind the wheel of a motorhome hire, and if you’re not capable of 15-mile cycle rides it’s worth knowing that the District Council provides a ‘hop-on, hop-off’ open-top tour bus service from the end of May to the start of September, to encourage car-free days out. You can pick up a ‘car-free days out’ pack for £1 and you’ll find details of the circular route that runs regularly between Lyndhurst, Lymington, Exbury and Beaulieu. You can flag the bus down anywhere along the route, and the pack comes with a number of circular day-walks, cycle rides and other activities. Also, look out for the Cycling in the New Forest guide and map (price £1). It shows all the approved on-road and off-road cycle routes, and explains the white arrows and way marker posts which show you the most direct routes between the villages. It also shows the route of the tour bus, identifies steep hills, and, crucially, the location of pubs along the way. The guide also explains that it’s against local bye-laws to cycle off the way- marked routes: apart from the erosion this causes, another reason is that because walkers and horse-riders have the right to go anywhere in the forest and so they don’t expect to encounter cyclists along the way.

Leaving the car park at Gosport Lane, go four miles southbound on the A337 to Brockenhurst, and you’ll find the Showground at New Park, home to the New Forest and Hampshire County Show during the last weekend in July.

By: Helen Bovey

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Independent travel writer & motorhome enthusiast, currently sponsored by the Uk's leading motorhome hire and campervan hire portal website ukmotorhomehirerental.com - Lifes great!