In the heart of the Forest

After heading into the Forest with a dodgy ankle and resting it overnight, today’s walk was a circular 14.4km walk to explore the forest. Predicted to take 4 hours 30 minutes, which both of us knew would be optimistic, even at best.

I’d debated with myself if it made sense to do the walk, but as the notes said that the walk would immerse us into everything the forest had to offer I was keen to see what it had in store for us. It also looked as if the walk was a large figure of eight so, if my ankle was playing up there was an option for us to cut it short as tomorrow was a ‘move on’ day and so I needed to be able to do that.

So off we set.

We took a picnic from the hotel and headed back the way we’d arrived yesterday, this time though taking in more of our surroundings, including these peculiarly ‘ribbed’ trees, but still looking out for the signs to ‘Laghetto’ - or small lake or pond.

Our walking notes told us that the Foresta Umbra is devoid of watercourses due to its karst nature, meaning that the topography is formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite.

Collections of rainwater form though, and they were fundamental for the development of settlements in the past, and still used as a key resource for animals living in the forest today. The largest of these is Laghetto d’Umbra with a depth of a couple of metres occupying the central part of a large sinkhole and the home to carp, the common toad as well as non-native species such as the golden carp, the catfish and the red-eared pond turtle.

Having spent some time at the lake we headed off for our next destination, the temporary waterhole ‘Cutino d’Orti’ but more on that when we get there, as it was truly amazing and like nothing I’ve ever seen before so I was so glad we opted to do the walk.

But we had plenty of forest and forest paths to navigate before we got there, and many directional markings to admire - thankfully today, we were following well signed footpaths.

These views of paths flanked by trees never get old, even looking back at my photos as I write this post I can feel the cool calmness that they exude, which was great then experiencing first hand and also very welcome today as the temperatures have notched up again here.

There were glimpses of sunlight coming through the tree canopy too - whether it was right down to the forest floor or just caught in the leaves, it’s no wonder that we find forests captivating.

We approached the clearing with the temporary waterhole ‘Cutino d’Otri’ and we couldn’t quite believe what we were seeing. We knew to expect a circular shape, bordered by an ancient dry stone wall with two gaps, or passages, which allow wild animals to drink without being trapped in its stagnant waters.

But we didn’t expect this.

It was stunning. The colour especially so.

And mesmerising. We watched the small insects dart about the surface, a toad appear every now and then and make a tremendous racket and unknown creatures below the surface. We even saw a small turtle crawl out of the water to enjoy the sun.

Totally amazing, and not something to miss - even to rest a dodgy ankle.

Eventually we drew ourselves away and headed into another part of the forest, this time to Falascone a further protected segment and a rare example of mixed beech forest. It was as amazing as the rest of the forest, but by now I was keen to get back and rest my ankle as I knew tomorrow’s walk could be more challenging. It was short, just 8.6km but it was the total ascent of 485m and a total descent of 315m that was playing on my mind!

I was momentarily distracted though by spotting a Granny’s Bonnet, and then lots of lichen!

And then there was the road back to our hotel, which was almost as picturesque as being in the heart of the forest. Almost.

See all of my posts from our self-guided walking holiday in the Gargano Peninsular. We started the walk on 18 May 2024, returning to the UK eight days later.

A woodland walk

It’s been a while since I had an urge to go to the woods. I’ve no idea why I did, but I did - and it was a good urge to follow up on. Even now, looking at the photos to create this post has been a good thing. Though obviously not as good as being there in person.

Petts Wood is relatively close by to us, but it’s a twenty minute car journey. We visited in October, so the photos are probably greener than it currently is. Even though it’s just over seven miles away, and somewhere we’ve driven past many a time, this was the first time we’d stopped, and the first time it was our destination.

We’d thought ahead and put our walking shoes into the boot, and changed into them before heading along the paths. But then again, not that clever enough to remember they were still in the boot of the car when we went food shopping just before Christmas. Finding them innocently there with a trolley load of shopping was quite a discovery.

I’m a fan of bracken anyway, but this view I could just keep breathing in. Maybe I should set that as my desktop wallpaper - though in reality, I don’t often see the wallpaper on my laptop as it’s covered by many layers of open windows.

The trees were fascinating too, and it’s true that the more you look, the more you see. At first glance the tree above looks an unusual shape, but looking more closely you’ll see that the horizontal part is actually a fallen tree that’s continued to grow towards the light, just in a slightly different way to when it was vertical.

The other thing that amazed me is that we’re less than twenty miles from central London, but the picture below could be much further afield.

These two photos represent how important it is to look down, as well as up. MOH was whinging that I was walking too slowly, but there was too much to see to race around. Perhaps if it were a place that was more familiar he might have a point.

And as we headed back to the car, the markings on the tree to the left definitely made us smile - it summed up our mood too.

Discovering a calm and tranquil Epping Forest

This wasn't quite the post I planned on writing. Yes, there was going to be a forest, but one in Hertfordshire, not Essex, but it was not to be...

Last week I set out to meet up with Annie from Mammasaurus and some other lovely bloggers at the NT Ashridge Estate. I knew as I approached the Blackwall Tunnel that the day had the potential to go pear-shaped when I saw the sign warning of an accident at the Redbridge roundabout. Undeterred I changed my route in an attempt to beat the snarl up of traffic that was forming, what seemed to be everywhere across East London. Every route the Sat Nav suggested had at least a 25 minute delay, and we all know that any delay they give is seriously on the conservative side. But onward I went and feeling rather smug with myself I made it to a rather empty M11...

The Sat Nav had other ideas and furiously beeped again to let me know what was congestion, and then accident(s) on the M25 was now a road closure. It had though found a route that was 27 minutes faster, so off we set. By now almost two hours into my adventure with the Sat Nav and just twenty or so miles from home, I was starting to feel a little despondent. And knowing that I needed to be home for a 4pm appointment was doing nothing to lower my stress levels.  

So when after a nose-to-tail slow drive through part of Epping Forest I saw the stationary traffic on the M25 that the Sat Nav was eagerly suggesting I join, I knew the game was up. Instead of heading up the slip road to join even more queues I double backed and found a quiet car park in Epping Forest.  

I'd seen the traffic queuing on the way back too, so my plan was to have a stroll, take some photos and eat that picnic I'd shoved into my cool bag as I ran around the kitchen grabbing suitable items for lunch much earlier and let the traffic dissipate while I did. 

I'd parked in the Broadstrood area and set out for what turned out to be a circular walk, join me but be warned this post now turns quite photo-heavy!

It wasn't long before I noticed some of the trees were odd shaped, but the path led me on and past some beautiful bracken (I have a bit of a thing for bracken and ferns it must be said)

The sunlight was dancing on the leaves but it wasn't long before I was back under the canopy. There were glimpses of blue skies. And trees trying their hardest to reach for it.

And there were forest paths and views that just made my heart sing and forget the London traffic altogether.

I found an upturned tree and where the forest opened out onto fields some wildflowers. The pink being the only other colour - apart from browns, greens and blue I saw on this walk - amazing.

And there was time to look up too, before reaching a pond with a solitary duck swimming about.

And as I made my way back towards the car park my eye was caught by these "loving trees" smiling to myself I was back at the car and consulting Sat Nav about the journey home. 27 minutes - that's definitely more like it!

So not the post I expected, but still a forest and one that if I've been to, before it hasn't been for many, many years (I'm sure I must have been to parts of it when I lived in Dagenham all those years ago) and probably not this part. It's peacefulness and tranquility were just the thing to rid me of the stresses of London's worse-than-usual-snarled-up-traffic. And while I was there MOH texted with instructions for me to suss it out for cycling - yeap I think it'd make a great place to cycle, so I've a feeling we'll be back.

And that 4pm appointment? Well they called, not to cancel but to ask if I could make it earlier instead... it was clearly meant to be!