Bugger

Bugger. It looks as if the forestry are clearing the collect which runs under Burley Rocks on the edge of Mill Lawn, and they've either moved the bridge in the process, or have removed it with the aim of renewing it; it does look a bit worse for wear. Either way, discovering it missing required we change our course.

Bullseye

Bullseye! A storm toppled tree smashed near perfectly diagonally across and through the railings of this woodland bridge. What are odds? Guaranteed. Sods' Law demands it.

Bridge repairs

It's good to see the forest infrastructure being maintained; if you're going to pimp the forest out, the least you can do is look after it. Personally I'm not in favour of the heavy marketing of the forest, not that I'm going all 'get off my land' or ought, I just feel the forest should be a world you're somehow drawn to or one you fortuitously stumble upon, not a commodity to be sold and exploited.  

New causeway

Credit where credit is due. I'm regularly berating the New Forest National Parks Authority for their failure to maintain the forest's infrastructure, therefore in the pursuit of balance I commend them on crating a new causeway across a notoriously seasonally impassible wet area which feeds Duck Hole Bog; so bravo. Now I going to sound churlish, though, and it's a criticism I've recently voiced, knowing this spot I fear the causeway, cool and welcome as it is, may find itself inaccessible in aforementioned wet area when wet proper; I think it may have benefited from having longer raised approaches. Time will tell.  Still, it was very useful today, replacing as it has a jumble of wooden flotsam and jetsam that you used to have to try and negotiate.    

A bridge too far

Oh ha ha, the joke you never tire of; it's that time of year when the New Forest National Parks Authority like to prank walkers by providing bridges you can't access. Of course they could say there are bridges 0.5miles up and down stream from this one, but both are a walk of 1.5miles off route to get to, and upon reaching the up stream bridge you'll likely find a similar situation. Why they don't sort the common issue out is beyond me (and it is commonplace), it wouldn't take much, and it would save a lot of bother. Instead they create Jim Bowen bridges; here a bridge you could've crossed. 

Useless

The perennial forest question 'when is a bridge not a bridge'. The above scenario is played out  throughout the forest, although none more so than on Mill Lawn Brook through Ober Water; where four bridges in succession are regularly unusable. Here a perfectly serviceable bridge made useless by being cut off by flood water; surely this situation could easily by avoided with a little forethought in design. I had to attempt some physics defying mad crane like run to bridge the water gap; enough to say, I only achieved limited success in walking on water. 

Bridge too far

 

For me this broken bridge (broken for weeks now) over the Ober is totemic of the New Forest NPA's  failures in managing and maintaining this magnificent tract of land. Well used, it's one of only 2 bridges on the stretch of Ober Water between Markway and Puttles bridges (there used to be a third bridge which fell into disrepair, was removed and never replaced), it's been out of service for weeks now, not too much of an issue whilst it's dry, though when it's wet. That's not the point mind, for years now too much of the forest's furniture, gates, dog accesses, tracks, bridges etal. have fallen into disrepair, languishing as such for a time before being lost/removed. Of course, I known the forest for 50 years and this decline was on going for years before the New Forest National Park Authority came into being, although, under the NPA it's accelerated as the forest has been relentlessly marketed at the same time as the infrastructure has continued to be neglected...then there's been the increased footfall of the pandemic too. Yes, I know I'm being a touch disingenuous, there's always repairs ongoing throughout the forest, and my complaint is not with the rangers or any other forest workers, all who do sterling work, but the NPA who should either fund the required staffing levels, restorations and repairs, or stop marketing the forest until they do.

Forgotten bridge

No discernible paths lead to or from this forgotten bridge across a backwoods drain.

Forgotten paths

A fading monument to a lost forest from a different time, a long neglected foot bridge, on a long forgotten foot path. These simple wooden remains now stand in isolation, no hint of the path they once served is discernible.  You'd easily miss this feature if you walked a few meters either way, just as you'd so easily miss all those other signs of past activity which are scattered throughout the forest.

Great Huntley Bank bridge

The light and aspect of the forest this morning were just so gorgeous. It was impossible not to be walking along grinning like a fool in awe and wonderment at the magnificence of it all. Uplifting walk. 

Uber Water

You'd think that over the years access to the forest would have increased, and in respect to numbers it has, though I really mean more in regards to accessibility. Over the years I've seen numerous paths and routes disappear, bridges decay never to be replaced, even actively removed, allowing routes to become forgotten and favourite spots left abandoned. Take this stretch of Uber Water, below Markway Bridge, I remember a small narrow footbridge being here for ever, it fell into ruin and that was that, there may even have been two. I've wondered why that would be, it happened all over the forest about 20 years ago, bridges, car parks, and access gates, all disappeared. I suppose it could have been some conservation plan, though all it's done is create over used 'honey pots' where more folk have been concentrated into fewer car parks and onto walks. Or, it could be that there were just too many things to keep maintained in our modern asset stripped country. I may look into it, or more likely forget, until the next time I remember something that's no longer there whilst out walking. For me, I still visit the spots and walk the same paths I've walked for decades, paths don't need to be marked to exist.