New Forest guided walking tour, England
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
On the walks we explain how the New Forest ponies and cattle are essential to the management of the New Forest. We explain the breed, their characteristics, how the commoners, and agisters work together in maintaining the health of the animals, the drift and the sale of ponies. We often see deer and discuss the different species and deer management. As and when seen, we identify birds and explain the importance of conservation and sensitive habitat maintenance. Plants are identified in season and we encourage visitors to identify species that they know. We examine specimen pollarded oaks and beech tree and explain the extent that old trees contribute to bio-diversity, and we discuss how woodlands develop over the centuries. Visitors leave us with an understanding of the rare habitats that the forest offers wildlife, and we know that people’s perception of the forest are lifted so that subsequent visits to are made even more meaningful. As one client said, “I’ll never look at a tree in the same way again”.
The New Forest is one of the best sites in England for finding rare fungi, and in the autumn we offer specialist fungi forays in co-operation with members of the Hampshire Fungus Recording Group. The emphasis on these forays is identification, conservation and education, and we follow the Forestry Commission and British Mycological Societies Guidelines. Rare sightings are recorded and these contribute to the knowledge base of the UK’s fungi species.
Hidden Britain Tours is a low environmental impact organization by definition. We are fully aware of our environmental responsibilities, we keep things simple, local, avoid environmental damage and cut down on what can’t be cut out. We operate from a simple home office and emphasize in our correspondence the need not to print unless necessary. Invoices are sent by e-mail rather than post, we use recyled paper when we can, and re-fill our print cartridges by hand. Paper waste is kept to a minimum, and any paper that is bio-degradable is re-cycled into one of our five compost heaps. Glass, paper and card, some metals and organic waste is is re-cycled, as are old clothes.
We are virtually self -sufficient in terms of vegetables and fruit and have an extensive and productive largely organic allotment, we are reluctant to use chemicals or biocides on our food, and with the recent purchase of a poly tunnel we are even less reliant on internationally supplied supermarket produce. We eat seasonally and rarely buy either vegetables or fruit out of season.
Any leaflets we need are printed by a local print company, Greenhouse Graphics, a business we support that uses recycleable paper and which has won many awards for its environmental sensitivity.
We are sensitive to the carbon cost of driven miles and petrol and have recently bought a vehicle that runs on diesel which is very fuel efficient in term of miles per gallon, and are actively researching the case for conversion of the vehicle to bio-fuels. We use (carbon neutral) logs for heating, and ensure that the logs are from a local and sustainable source. We have facilities that reduce internal water consumption and collect rainwater for exterior water needs.
Walk leaders carry re-useable plastic bags and frequently pick up litter from the forest to either dispose of or recycle. When taking parties on walks we use local suppliers who support the New Forest Marque and who source many of their materials locally. Hidden Britain Tours is sensitive to the potential of visual pollution and when using coaches we encourage returning the coaches to a suitable coach park to reduce the visual impact on the forest environment. We are members of the Green Leaf Scheme.
Community
We fully appreciate the extent of the importance that our stakeholders/neighbours play in the success of our business. Over the last few years we have contributed in our own small way to the micro-economy of the New Forest, in terms of food outlets and retailing. With over three thousand people taken on walks in the forest with an estimated average spend of at least £15 per person I would say that somewhere in the region of £45000 has been generated and spent in the local economy. We have a good relationship with our competitors and refer business to them if we are not able to supply our services. Co-opetition with competitors also means referrals back to us when they are in a similar position. We are members of the New Forest Tourism Association and our neighbours, in this sense, have been very supportive in so many ways of our business, in terms of advice, marketing initatiatives etc. We have offered familiarization trips to journalists and PR companies to help promote the forest as a destination, work with the TSE and the media company that supports NFTA.
We are conscious of capacity issues when dealing with coach parties, and have selected two food outlets that can cater for large numbers with largely locally sourced food. Other smaller outlets want our business but we are sensitive to the problems of scale and interruption to local people. Coach access and diesel fumes, noise and visual pollution are issues we are sensitive to and take action on.
We are part of the edutainment business, so deliver talks about the Forest to local hotels, local groups and societies as an inevitable function of corporate responsibility. If we can help we will.
We have good relations with the local council officers and the staff at the Visitor Information Centre. We have offered familiarization trips so the staff can inform the public about the offer we have. We are members of the Institute for Outdoor Education.
We have excellent relationships with our main clients and do get repeat business from clients who now ask us to arrange specialist guided walks for particular walking groups, (for example, U3a groups), in the South Downs, the Jurassic Coast, the Isle of Wight and the North Norfolk Coast.
I was chairman of the Board of trustees of a local Arts Centre and still continue to support the centre in many ways. The centre is dedicated to promotion of dance, music and theatre and a showcase for local artistic talent. The cultural offer includes first exhibitions (New Contemporaries) for graduates of arts degrees drawn from local art colleges and universities. The centre is particularly proud of its links with ethnic communities. A Chinese officer has been appointed who works closely with the Chinese Community offering dance, fashion and language programmes. There are many dance classes celebrating the links with the Indian Community, and recently a Russian opera singer is being helped in her career in the UK. From Hip Hop to Bollywood, local guitarists and bands, the centre is an entrepreneurial hot house that helps many artists develop their careers. Computer classes are held for silver surfers who rapidly develop confidence in IT skills in effect enfranchising themselves into the essential skills needed this century. Exhibitions of international artists are also offered. Many of these activities are celebrated on stage at a free local festival in the summer, demonstrating to the wider community the range of accessible cultural products people can engage in at the centre.
Over the last year with two other volunteers I actively encourage and promote local musicians to play in venues in the town, we cherry pick usually new, emerging, talented players and give them a chance to perform where otherwise they wouldn’t. We have an extensive network of performers who are being nurtured and helped to develop, express themselves, and develop their artistic careers. With the support of the arts centre, many of these players eventually develop to perform competently in public in much larger festivals.
We have strong links with the Hampshire Fungi Recording Group and when running fungi forays note and log every species seen, noting dates and location and this data when collected and analysed contributes to the groups understanding of the rich variety of fungi in Hampshire. My wife, Sue,, who is also a director of Hidden Britain Tours, is a volunteer and active member of the Hampshire Fungus Recording Group and joins them on their recording forays when possible, and is the Publicity Officer for their annual exhibition at the new Forest Reptile Centre. Our own Fungi Walks Advice Sheets reinforce the ethic of sensitivity to the environment in the observation and picking of fungi. When operating our fungi walks we photograph rare fungi and submit the images to the HFRG.
Landscape
This is what we do! We offer safe, risk assessed, gentle, explanatory walks in the New Forest. We have a team of people we can draw on as walk leaders and specialist guides; mycologists, an ecologist ,a volunteer ranger and a part time teacher with who keeps New Forest ponies, all of whom are competent talking to groups of visitors, who are passionate about their expertise and can explain the forest and the unique elements of the landscape. We are about edutainment, a careful mix of education and entertainment.
We explain the landscape as we walk, enhancing the visitor experience by stopping, looking, smelling, touching and sometimes tasting the landscape we walk through. We promote an understanding of the landscape, the skyscape, the soundscape and scentscape all of which after a gentle walk enhance the visitor experience. Crushing a fresh bracken frond, or a leaf of bog myrtle, or the scent of autumn leaves, the crackle of ice on a puddle, a quiet moment to listen to a cuckoo in the spring, hearing tree crickets in the high summers, all these experiences, and more, engage the visitor and encourage memories of other places, childhood memories or previous moments shared with family in the past, and encourage people who may not have known each other before to share and then talk to each other; the walks create a shared experiences and engender discussion, the sharing of memories, the realisation of values or experiences held in common and these engender friendships and a shared concern and understanding of the environment that was not there before.
People leave the New Forest less of a stranger and more as a friend.
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