A Heather Walk on the Smugglers Track

On a muggy, hot afternoon last weekend, we walked a few miles in the footsteps of long-ago smugglers, through swathes of flowering purple heather on New Forest moorland.

Wild honey bees droned and fed on nectar. By the woodland edge, we were divebombed by darter dragonflies. A soft scent of heather blossom hung in the drowsy air.

On the high plateau, where they burned the gorse last year, new grass and heather shoots attracted groups of ponies.......

...although this mare had a taste for bracken. Too much bracken can poison the ponies and give them Bracken Staggers, but most seem to enjoy a few leaves quite safely and then move on to grass.

A drift of pink heather on the valley slope.

Bell heather and wood sage was flowering beside the path.

Stands of silver birch and gorse gave shelter along the Smugglers` Track.

High on the top of a ridge that leads from the Crow road to Picket Post, is the old gravel track that smugglers used to bring contraband up from the coast. Boats would arrive in the night, down at Mudeford or Barton beach. Men with pack ponies brought the smuggled goods inland and would pass along these sandy tracks, making for the London Road where traders would buy the illegal drink and other goods, ready to move it on to the London markets.

Local people who remember WWII call this ridgeway "The Tank Track". Troops were stationed in this area of the New Forest for training, prior to D Day, and some remember the sight of tanks being driven along the ridge.

Across the valley, towards Castle Hill.

On the other side of the ridge, a path twisted down through the heather to the woods at Hightown , not far from Ringwood. The distant view into Dorset showed the Purbeck Hills on a misty horizon.

We walked down into the valley bottom and found the track leading back to our starting place.

Down there, in the shelter of hills , the ling was just coming into flower.

I used to ride along this sandy track.....

....and here, again, was the stretch where my old New Forest pony loved to canter along, through the soft sand.

At the head of the valley, we walked easily along pathways that can be deep in water during winter rains.

Only small ponds remained in the wide stretch of bog. So far, this has been a dry summer, following an even drier spring.

In a boggy place beside the path, carnivorous sundew plants opened their sticky leaves to passing insects.......

....while on the dry margins, yellow stars of Tormentil shone out of the grass.

We stayed by the marsh, watching crows mobbing a mewing buzzard in the sky above the valley. Walking back , up the gravel path to the top of the hill, we met the same group of ponies again, still feeding peacefully up in the sunshine, among the gorse and flowering heather.

Lucy Kitten and the Amazon Box

According to her RSPCA records, Lucy Kitten will be one year old this month, so no longer a kitten. What could be a better birthday present for a cat, than a cardboard box?

Especially a cardboard box that holds a python sized, coiled up tube of packing paper......

Waiting to pounce....

...and attack with sharp white teeth.

Biting and tearing off scraps of the "snake"............

....with pointed claws out.......

....and all under the disdainful glare of Forest Cat, who has little time for kitten games.

A cross, hunting face.......

....and then she pounces on the cardboard, biting and worrying it to certain death.

Beach Huts at Mudeford Sandbank

As we walked along the top of Hengistbury Head last Wednesday, we caught sight of the long spit of sand that divides the sea from the inner waters of Christchurch Harbour. All along the spit, known as Mudeford Sandbank, are small, brightly painted beach huts.

Descending the cliff steps, onto the beach, gives a view of a row of well tended roof tops. Some of the beach huts are now equipped with solar panels.

The huts used to belong, mostly, to local families who relaxed by sailing small boats and playing in the sand. Now, many of the huts belong to people from outside the area, who enjoy their time by the sea at weekends or during long summer holidays. The huts can be slept in between February and November, so people can use them as a second home. During the winter months there are heavy seas, storms and spring tides along this coast, so residence in a beach hut would be a bit of a risky adventure!

To the south, the beach huts have views across the western reaches of the Solent, towards the Isle of Wight.

To the north, there are views across the marshes and the harbour towards Christchurch. This is a wonderful place to watch seabirds feeding on the mudflats when the tide is low.

Below is one of the smartest beach huts. I loved the colour of this one. There is something almost Scandinavian about it.

I noticed that there is a Mudeford beach hut for sale on one of the specialist websites. For a mere £145, 000 you can have your own, state- of - the -art beach hut that can sleep up to seven people. Along the coast in Sussex, was a smaller, simpler beach hut for £12,000. Even that seems a lot for a wooden hut!

Those who stay in the beach huts can travel down on the Noddy Train, bringing their supplies with them. We took the train back on Wednesday evening and enjoyed the views of harbour and woodland as we passed along the inner side of Hengistbury Head.

I had to take a photo of the warning sign that appeared in every Noddy Train carriage!

Harebells at Hengistbury Head

Last Wednesday, I joined friends for a walk by the sea at Hengistbury Head, which is a sandstone cliff that protects the mouth of Christchurch Harbour from prevailing winds.

It was a grey, cool afternoon but a good temperature for walking.

Between the Double Dykes and Hengistbury Head itself, lies a flat field where an Iron Age town once thrived.

We climbed the Head and looked back towards Bournemouth, along quiet sandy beaches and across grey-green seas in Poole Bay.

The trig point and one of the many dogs we met, out exploring.....

The view towards the entrance of Christchurch Harbour, where the narrow strip of water, The Run, has deceptively deep currents and hidden sandbanks to test the sailors of small boats who are heading out to sea.

Northwards, is St Catherine`s Hill, with the town of Christchurch and the Norman Priory Church in the middle distance. New marinas have been built in front of the Priory Church, which many people feel have spoiled an ancient vista of marsh and church.

Walking along the clifftop path. The old coastguard station is boarded up and no longer manned.

Across the harbour lies the saltmarsh nature reserve of Stanpit Marsh, the village of Mudeford and the wooded hills of the New Forest in the distance.

The salty air and sandy soil on Hengistbury Head make it make a good habitat for heathland plants. Bell heather flowers alongside coltsfoot and harebell in rough grass.

Below the cliff edge, sand martins swooped and cried. Their young ones were learning to fly and feed before returning to their nests in holes burrowed into the steep sand cliff. Later in the summer, these lovely birds will fly south again, to winter in Africa.

Thrift......

...and a beautiful drift of harebells.

A hill of new gorse and heather overlook the harbour.

As we descended the path, the shining, almost ghostly, chalk cliffs of the Isle of Wight loomed out of a misty sea. The chalk Needles and the Needles Light can just be seen to the right.

We walked down through dense undergrowth, a haven for migrating and resident birds.

Around a corner was the old Quarry Pond. In Victorian times, Ironstone boulders were quarried here. Now, there is fresh water where wildfowl swim , where dragonflies and damsels dart and where waterlilies bloom.

We were almost at the end of our walk. The old black house watched over The Run and a myriad of small boats were moored in the sheltered harbour mouth.

A last view across the clifftop heath, to a grey-blue sky and a milky blue sea........

...before we climbed down the old sandy steps towards the beach.