This walk was such a pleasure. We had 19 people in the morning and 17 in the afternoon - as it happened pretty much all from Milford Tennis Club although I had made it available to anyone. Fortunately once again we had good weather and set off through the glorious beech woods of Mark Ash. On the way to Wooson's Hill some of us had the pleasant surprise of seeing a tawny owl fly out of a tree right in front of us (just a few seconds before I was going to say "There's a tawny owl lives in a tree here but I doubt if you'll see it!"). The climb over Acres Down was good and everything was going well until Jean H tripped and fell, suffering a nosebleed and bruised lip. Her husband Ian explained that Jean was just an attention-seeker (but only after he had ascertained that she was ok). Anyway, Jean made a recovery shortly after in the nearby pub.
After lunch we strolled through the woods to the Reptile Centre where my good friend and colleague Richard Daponte met us and gave a talk about New Forest reptiles. He then fed some of the inmates at the Centre which gave the group a better view of the various snakes, toads and lizards. A big thank you to Richard for that! The walkers were also entertained by the RSPB nestcam featuring a Goshawk nest with its female and 3 offspring. Leaving the Centre we walked on to the Knightwood Oak where we stopped briefly to look at this 600+ year old monster, claimed to be the largest oak in the Forest. After that we headed back to our start point at Anderwood by way of the Eagle Oak (site of the last White-Tailed Eagle to be shot in England). The whole day was pleasant with lovely weather, super company and - best of all - we made a nice lot of money for the charity - the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group (over £200) -plus £65 for the tennis club. So altogether a great success! Roll on next year when I'm gonna make it even bigger and better!