Epping Forest is 5,900 acres of ancient woodland in London, yes, that's right, London!!
Epping Forest borders the county of Essex. A former royal park and previously part of the larger Waltham Forest, it dates back to neolithic times.
During Saxon times, the forest was dramatically altered by selective felling of trees and now it is dominated by beech, birch and oak hornbeam. Henry II made it a Royal forest in the 12th century. He allowed peasants to collect wood, food, graze livestock but only he was allowed to hunt.
It is thought that Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I possibly hunted in Epping. A building, originally built in 1543 and renovated in 1589 is known today as Queen Elizabeth's Hunting lodge.
The lodge is open to the public and the visitors centre can be found next door with information about the forest, maps, beautiful books including walking and nature guides and lovely cards and gifts.
A few minutes walk away is Butlers Retreat a cafe and food store. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to pop in, but it looked like a lovely place for a rest, a drink or something to eat - or perhaps a bit of each!
The weather had been pretty damp with very heavy rains overnight making it a relatively muddy walk at times. Luckily the day was dry and following an early morning frost, it became a relatively mild day.
Given the size of the forest, I hadn't actually done any research on where to go and thought I would just rock up and figure something out.
Luckily, I picked up a book of walks from the visitor centre which gave a lot of options of where to go. My walk started late in the day so I adapted the walk in the book to make it slightly shorter to ensure I got back before dark.
Starting at Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge
I took my beautiful pink binoculars out with me to see what I could see on my journey. Being a Friday, it was lovely and peaceful.
Given the acres of open space, there was more than enough land to explore and to feel at peace which is a very rare and beautiful thing in London. I mainly saw dog walkers but for most of the time, I was walking alone - the whole time I felt safe and never far from at least someone.
The forest was filled with beautiful colours even thought it is late autumn.
The light at the time of day was beautiful and the rain clouds weren't quite ready to burst which made for a really beautiful scene.
I'm used to walking relatively quickly when out in the countryside, but I am gradually learning to walk more slowly which I am finding pays dividends. For the first time ever, I spotted some winter thrushes (I think they were redwings), beautiful flocks of blue and great tits and the absolute highlight was spotting a great spotted woodpecker.
Slowing down not only calms us internally, but really allows us to be more attuned with our senses. The forest was a wonderful place to discover this and to start paying more attention to the beauty around us, even in London.
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