HEATHER RAMBLE FROM BOLDERWOOD TO CADMAN’S POOL. 31ST AUGUST.
You wouldn’t believe how lucky we were for this ramble. It all depended on the sun shining for the day to be a success and it couldn’t have been more perfect. We had 8 intrepid scooterists and 2 hard working walkers along with us. We were very pleased to welcome a new DR member, Eric with his lovely dog, Ben, as well as some well known DR members of long standing. We were a little late in leaving due to snarl-ups on the M3 and M27 which made the peace and quiet of the forest even more special.
The heather stands about 18” tall and was in full bloom, unfortunately due to a strong little breeze the fragrance was not as apparent as I had hoped but all across the heathland it was a sea of purple and was very beautiful. We had lunch in a lovely sheltered spot, and there were bee hives visible among the heather to allow the bees full access to the heather flowers and the resulting New Forest honey. The blackberries are ripening and the autumn atmosphere is beginning to be felt. We got to Cadman’s Pool much later than expected but stopped for quite a while to watch the ducks and enjoy the view there. We then went through a forest inclosure on the way back, one rather alarming happening was that Ben, the lovely dog accompanying Eric, went into a large water pipe which took a stream under the track we were travelling along, and being a big dog we were rather alarmed whether he would be able to get out, but all was well and he emerged, a little muddy and subdued, but otherwise OK and soon regained his joy of collecting very large sticks and having a very doggy time!
Near the end of the ramble some of us opted to do a little circular detour to see a bit more of the forest and some returned to the car park the quick way as they were a bit weary, This detour was a little more sheltered and the fragrance of the honey was more obvious, and a bonus was that we were lucky to see a beautiful horse and very nice carriage-y type gig being driven by two people along the track, not the usual pony and trap thing, but a very high class outfit and lovely horse, we all pulled over to let them pass. A lovely sight. The leader of the ramble, Val (me), unfortunately forgot that at the end of the ramble there was a very steep hill and as the two smaller scooters were with us, and getting low on power, we had some interesting moments. A near acrobatic display over the handlebars from Bob, and a lot of pushing up the steepest part of the hill for Raewyn. It was all good fun, and we all coped and mucked in together, and finally got back safely to Bolderwood car park and the ice cream kiosk!! Very welcome they were too. A lovely time with the sun shining all day, and high spirits from all of us on the ramble. Thanks to all who came – it was great.
Finally, 6 of us went down to a lovely pub in the middle of nowhere and had a meal before setting off home, a good end to a super day.