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‘No one,” says Clare, grinning broadly and handing me a cycle helmet, “comes back sweating from one of our rides.” Looking at the Super Monkey I’m about to clamber on to – a gleaming black machine, modelled rather like a Chopper bike from the 1970s, only with triple-width tyres and the (all-important) powerbox attached to the main stem – I can believe it. Synch ebikes, available to rent from Clare and Lisa at Jaunt-E Bikes, are the last word in effort-free cycling, and the best way to delve into the depths of the New Forest.
It’s a grey, drizzly morning when I set off from my Brockenhurst bolthole, Cottage Lodge, cycling gingerly up the busy A337 before turning down a gravel track into the forest. At first the bike feels a bit like being on a horse – raring to go every time I put my foot down – but I soon get used to it, whizzing happily past runners and analogue cyclists, the wide, “comfort” saddle shielding me from the worst of the uneven, gravelly track. Within minutes, I’m immersed in the forest; waves of ferns rippling out beneath towering oak and beech trees.
The New Forest is a cyclist’s dream, latticed with a network of trails that link the clutch of villages and small towns – most notably Lyndhurst, Brockenhurst, Burley and Beaulieu – with the purple-hued moorland and bottle-green expanse of forest. There are apps to download and maps available, but after a while I simply let the tracks take me where they want, relying on Google Maps to pinpoint where I am.
In spite of aiming for Beaulieu, I end up in Lyndhurst, the New Forest’s unofficial capital, with a high street that has undergone a transformation since my last, pre-pandemic visit, with lots of new additions. Now it’s dotted with coffee shops, independent boutiques and even a classic record shop, Blackstar, with vinyl albums displayed on the walls. My damp, Lycra-clad state sadly precludes much browsing, so I settle in at Peggy May’s Café for tea and a slab of carrot cake so huge (and delicious), I wrap half of it in my napkin to fuel me for the ride home.
And quite some ride it proves to be, whizzing through the Rhinefield, an area of the forest that’s home to some of the tallest trees in the country, with redwoods that top an imposing 50m. The sun starts to emerge from behind clouds as I ride, warming the pale mauve swathes of heather that cover the open spaces between the trees. Inevitably, it can still get busy around here and briefly I encounter a traffic jam; stuck behind two cars and a pair of cyclists, brought to a halt by several horses standing motionless in the road. They stare balefully at me, but there’s no question who has the right of passage; for centuries, animals have had free roam of the forest. When I finally arrive back at Cottage Lodge, a family of donkeys is grazing quietly on the other side of the road.
“Visitors love them, but locals can sometimes get a little frustrated,” says Maurizio Redaelli, who owns and runs Cottage Lodge with his wife, Francesca. The small 16-room hotel is a world away from the large country house hotels that dot the New Forest, and has won awards for its eco-friendly policies, including sourcing the majority of its food and ingredients from within the national park. “We’re lucky to be surrounded by so many specialist producers,” says Maurizio. “The forest is incredibly rich in resources, but we have to all work to ensure it remains that way.”
The following morning, Maurizio’s hearty breakfast (local bacon, sausages and eggs, with homemade jams and marmalades) sets me up for a second day of cycling, this time by the coast. Even after decades of visiting the New Forest, I wasn’t really aware that the national park runs down to the sea, having never really explored anywhere beyond the road that leads through Lymington to the Isle of Wight ferry.
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Jaunt-E Bikes are based in the small hamlet of Keyhaven, a stone’s throw from the sea, and have a variety of pre-planned coastal routes involving treasure hunts, vineyard visits or just a stop for lunch in Lymington. I opt for the last and set off along the waterside footpath towards the town; the watery marshes of the Keyhaven Nature Reserve rolling out on one side, the Solent on the other, the northwest coast of the Isle of Wight so close it looks almost swimmable.
It’s a blissful, sunny ride; vast blue skies above the khaki-hued marshes, cows grazing lazily, horses frisking about with long-legged foals trotting along behind. Lymington’s pretty waterfront is thronging with tourists when I arrive, so I stop just long enough for a hefty ice-cream before setting off down country lanes back towards Keyhaven, barely meeting a car on the whole route back. When I first took the bike, Clare said that e-biking makes you feel like a child again; the joy of pedalling along with effortless ease. As I flick the power up a notch and freewheel downhill, beaming at no one, I know exactly what she means.
I hand the bike back reluctantly and potter home to Brockenhurst, the sun just starting to blur above the tree canopy that stretches away from the road. As I drive past place names that fascinated me in my childhood – Rufus Stone and Sway – it strikes me how little seems to have changed. Doubtless there are issues with tourism and traffic, but to me, at least, the New Forest remains an extraordinary wilderness. And, best of all, I now have a whole new way to explore it.
Cottage Lodge has double rooms from £135 B&B. Synch ebikes (jaunt-ebikes.co.uk) are £39 for a three-hour rental. More info at thenewforest.co.uk