Post by Dave on Oct 24, 2010 14:32:06 GMT
Haldon Forrest Walk 15th October 2010
I don’t know why it’s taken me all of my life to step foot in Haldon Forrest but I’m glad I was able to spend a good five hours exploring it with Carol by my side on Friday 15th Oct 2010.
If I had just one wish it would be that I was a good twenty years younger as the woods around the centre that has been built there, is a wonderful adventure playground with an amazing Ape World built up in the trees over a good size site and brilliant and dangerous looking cycle tracks going deep into the Forrest.
I felt a bit guilty taking an all day parking ticket off a man who offered me his as I got to the meter that he was parked next to it and was just about to leave, but it was £2 saved and I thanked him and placed the ticket on the dashboard and set off with Carol to read a large information board.
Beside the board were a number of leaflets and we took one that showed all the walking trails and we choose the Raptor Trail as it sounded the most exciting and it also took you to a viewing area where it said you could observe birds of pray.
Carol popped in the ladies room and so while I was waiting I walked toward the entrance I though we had to leave the centre to start the walk and took a few photos of birds feeding from a bird table and also a bird feeder.
Right time to set off and we turned right on the road heading downward into the forest and came across signs directing you on a number of walks but there was no mention of the Raptor Walk. Carol checked the map on the leaflet and then told me we had gone out the wrong entrance and so had to walk back to the centre and out the way we had driven into it.
We crossed the road and headed down the track and to be honest while there were trees on both sides of us, it did not have the feel of walking in a forest due to the very wide track we were walking on. We did get to one point where through a parting in the trees we could see parts of Exeter and the river that flows out at Exmouth and it was clear that we were more on one edge of the forest rather than being in the middle of it.
Then just ahead we saw one of only two deer’s we got to see all day and to be honest I was expecting to see many more than we did but thankfully I managed to get a picture of this deer as he crossed over the track some 100 yards ahead of us.
At some point walking this track the walk turned of it and headed through the trees and at last it felt like we were in a forest but it did not last too long before we came to the road again and had to cross over it to carry on our walk on the other side of it.
We then very soon came to the path you have to walk up and then come back again to the place where you can see birds of pray or so the leaflet claimed. It was a biggish open circle with benches to sit on and I swear we could have sat there for many more hours and not see any bird of pray. Carol had a packet of crisps she brought along to eat at some point and a packet of cheddars for me and this seemed the perfect place to eat them and I even stood and held up one cheddar high in the air to try and attract a bird any sort of bird but none took my bate and we never even saw as much as a blackbird let alone a bird of pray.
Time to move on and it was not long before we heard the sound of what sounded like a zip wire in use and then as we looked up we saw someone high up coming from one side of a valley to the other on a zip wire. In fact there were two such wires and then as we looked up into the trees on our left hand side we could see what is best described as a wonder assault course built in the roof of the forest.
A young lad and his father were just starting out on it and we stayed a while and watched them tackle each obstacle as they came to them, each time clipping themselves onto a wire to prevent them falling to the forest floor. After a while they got to the zip wire and one by one they set off on what looked the best and longest zip wire I have ever seem and once over the other side they had more tree top obstacles they had to overcome before getting to zip line number two that brought them back to the side where they started. There was even more for them to do of the coarse a bit higher up and we could just about see some parts of the it and could hear another zip wire being used and what fun it all looked and If I was a bit fitter and Carol was able to join in which she is not able to do right now, then I would have been having a go myself.
We were nearly at the end of the Raptor walk and while we had walked a good few miles decided to do a second walk called the Tree Walk. This one really was more of a woodland forest walk and it was on this walk we saw deer number two but he was a bit to quick for me to get his picture and while we got to see him a while longer than the other one we saw, he was in amongst the trees and I was unable to get a good enough view of him to take a picture.
There were so many piles of fresh deer droppings on one part of the Tree Walk and we could hear them but sadly never got another sighting and so we pressed on and completed the walk after first having to pass near that wonderful assault coarse in the sky.
It was very clear we only walked around a very small part of Haldon Forrest and maybe one day we will go there again only this time not stick to any planned and marked out routes and instead just head deep into the forest and see where we end up.
An enjoyable day once again and one of many more I hope to be able to enjoy in the company of the one and only Carol.
