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Step Backwards in Time If you enter the New Forest today, you appear to step backwards in time. The landscape is unique and traditions exist
here that are unchanged since mediaeval times. The New Forest's
ancient woodlands and wilderness heaths remain largely intact,
earning the area national and international status.This most English of forests continues to be a living and working community where ponies and cattle still have the right of way as they freely graze the land. Deeper in the forest wild deer browse beneath the canopies of mighty oak and beech - natural scenes unchanged by the modern world. My first visit - was many years ago when as a young boy I was lucky to have parents who had a car and caravan so we travelled down from Manchester and stayed in the forest wherever we wished to park up. This was around 50 years ago when you were lucky to get a holiday never mind travel with a caravan in tow. My young brother and I used to sleep in a tent close to the caravan until the horses started to bother us. They were lovely days days but now sadly a faded memory. Today all the roads are bordered by ditches dug to prevent caravans from parking in the forest, except for the few designated camps such as Longbeach, also the threat of gypsies and travellers needed to be addressed.
My favourite places were the lovely country pubs scattered
throughout the forest the Wandering round the forest is an absolute joy, you share
the silence and beauty with all manner of wild animals and can
go for hours without seeing a soul. The main danger to the
animals of course is people driving cars. There are many animals
killed and to be fair a number of human fatalities have occurred
when animals have come through the drivers window. I had the
misfortune to be driving to Salisbury one evening to visit a
friend when a herd of deer decided to leap across the hedgerow
in front of me and stampede across the road. I crashed into one
leaving it dead in the ditch. By the time I had been to the
nearest pub to report it to a forest ranger I knew and returned
to the spot, it had gone. The ranger said I should have put it
in the boot and then got in touch with him, someone had
obviously beaten me to it.
Things you must do : Right - Longbeach Campsite
Sadly my friend Thierry has left the forest now and moved to nearby Kings Sombourne close to Romsey where he has a business so I don't get down to the forest to often but, when I do go to Thierry's I usually take the opportunity to look up my old friends and once again taste that special feeling you get when you cross the cattle grids to enter the New Forest.
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