Nature Weekend in Forest of Dean

This year, I have had a real intent on trying to do something nature oriented each month. So, at the beginning of July, we went to the Forest of Dean for a bit of a nature weekend. The main focus of the weekend was an evening Wildlife Safari with Liz Drewitt which we had pre-booked.

We started out by stopping at Slimbridge (the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust site), which coming from Somerset made a slightly elongated journey to the Forest of Dean. If you like birds, it is well worth a visit.

Although there are a lot of native birds (with a focus on wetland habitats) at Slimbridge, there are others there such as the Nene which is a Hawaiian goose. There is a mix of enclosure style environments and then hides look out onto the estuary.

The gardens and surrounding area at Slimbridge are really lovely and it would be a great place to visit as a family. We decided to hire a canoe whilst we were there. If you are lucky you might see kingfishers, however, as the designated person steering the canoe, we were probably concentrating too much on going in the right direction! 

The following day, as my husband had brought his exam marking with him, I indulged in my first experience in a floatation tank at Float in the Forest. It is quite a strange experience and I didn't feel I could close the floatation pod completely. It was deeply relaxing though.

One of the oldest Holm Oaks in the country

As National Trust members, it seemed rude not to visit Westbury Court Gardens as we were in the area. This is one of their smaller places and there is no historic house to visit. But the water gardens are really lovely.

As I am writing this, at the tail end of August, I can't quite believe that the heatwave had started at the beginning of July (or possibly earlier), but looking back at the photos, I do remember how hot it was.

I always come away with a lot of inspiration from places like these, especially the kitchen gardens, however it rarely gets put into practice.

And after a game of pirate mini-golf (a mini-break isn't a mini-break without crazy golf, right?) it was finally time to meet in a lay-by (and pray to God it was one known for dogging) for the wild boar walk.

The walk started at 8pm and was led by Liz Drewitt. She and her husband both run guided walks in the Forest of Dean. She is so knowledgeable about the area and the wildlife and had visual aids so you could see images of the birds that we could hear for example.

I didn't take many pictures because it was getting dark and we were all trying to be really quiet looking out for wild boar. We didn't actually see any on this visit, which was a little disappointing. However, there are no guarantees with nature. What we did see was a fox, some deer and quite a few birds, including hearing a tawny owl. It is actually really lovely being in the company of like-minded people for an hour or two, and if we are ever in the area again, we know where to start looking.

Obviously, since my walk, every person that I have spoken to that has been to the Forest of Dean tells me a story of their accidental encounter with wild boar!

Another lovely weekend away. 

Love Mrs Jones x

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