We spent the weekend in the Forest of Dean, on the Welsh border. Adam had chosen a lovely location (completely unintentional) where you could walk out the front door and straight into a lovely forest, about a mile walk to Symonds Yat Rock - a stunning view point looking out over the Wye Valley. It's also a birding hot spot so the RSPB have a stall set up with binoculars and scopes you can borrow to watch the peregrine falcons and sparrow hawks.
Gwen was an ok traveller. She got upset towards the end of the 3hr car trip, but recovered ok. We pushed her too far the next day though - getting in and out of the car all day and not letting her sleep properly. We paid for it that evening with a couple of upset hours before bed, which carried over a bit until the morning. So when she started up in the morning I got her into the sling quickly and took off into the forest with just my phone and keys.
The forest was lovely and calmed her down very quickly. It is forestry commission forest, and crisscrossed with wide trails - very easy walking give or take a few hills. So I had good fun chuckling at all the Londoners out Walking in their Walking Clothes: all new, crisp and freshly ironed Outdoors clothes and immaculate hiking boots. Most of these people were just at the lookout, walking the few hundred metres from their cars to the Rock. But my favourites were a couple in new Walking Clothes struggling to read a map and work out directions in the forest, asking me for directions (i could only offer a guess) then running off in the direction of the Rock only for me & Gwen to overtake them while they struggled with the map again 10 minutes later.
And the last photo is at Tintern Abbey, but more about that later.
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