Plenty of Advice Available

Thinking of the lovely "Advice from a Tree"

This woodland is only a few miles from home, yet I've not explored it before.
About 10 years ago there was a development of some 60 cabins, a visitor centre and cafe so I'd kept clear - not really far enough away to make use of the cafe stop and potentially hectic. However, in winter I tend to venture off the roads and onto the mud more and I though I'd have a look.

First time, a few days ago I made it a detour on the way home. It sort of worked but I needed a map of the marked trails. A quick visit to the internet gave me a good laugh - someone had helpfully offered a route there of 4.4km. I decided that it would be tricky to follow a gps trail obviously attached to the dog!

So today I went to the main entrance, took a photo of the trail map and enjoyed a variety of mud and gritted trails for a few hours, with plenty of undulations but nothing too intrepid. As expected, 12.30 saw the cafe overflowing, but an hour and a blip later there was a spare table where I enjoyed their drink and cake deal.

Overall it looks the ideal place to head for if I'm not after road miles, or if I simply want to invest in 3 or 4 road miles each way (including the wonderful Larkwhistle Farm Road again) to a playground to lose myself for a few hours. The long way back takes me on a bridleway to 200m from home. Lovely way to end the year :-)