A day at Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary

Today we had a day out in the New Forest and went to the Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary. We went last September but only glimpsed a couple of Deer then as they were off in the depths of the Forest for the rutting season. We knew that the New Forest keeper fed them daily at around 2pm from April to September so thought it would be a great time to go back and see if there were any Deer to see.

We arrived and went for a walk around the Forest first as it was before lunchtime and then stopped at the picnic area for some lunch. Imogen was interested in the moss growing, and seeing if it had a smell, we were touching bark to see if it was rough or smooth, and mostly enjoyed climbing up and down the many tree stumps.

Once lunch was finished and we'd played in the Stick tee pee, we made our way over to the viewing platform area that the keepers have set up to see the Deer. We weren't disappointed ...
I counted at least 57, but as a lot were lying down and in dips in the ground there may have been more. They are a herd of Fallow Deer and we read some information about them on the information boards and in a newspaper we picked up at the keepers hut.
It was brilliant to see so many Deer so close up - they were at times very close to us so many pictures were taken. Here's a selection ...

And this one is probably my favourite picture.


Imogen was very impressed, and was venturing all around, on the platform and looking through the fence at all the lovely Deer.

We then continued to walk around the forest kicking and throwing up leaves,

picking up sticks, climbing over more tree stumps and then finding a big tree stump for us all to sit on and Imogen started driving the bus - isn't the imagination of a small child great.

It was then time to go back to the car park for a lovely New Forest Ice Cream, clotted cream flavour - yum!