A flashback to early Summer and one of our close to home, post-lockdown walks… Deer in the northern New Forest near Latchmore Bottom.

This was our first time in the New Forest for quite a while. The northern Forest around Godshill, Fritham and Frogham is undoubtedly my favourite part, so much wilder, more open and less crowded than the the southern honeypot areas of Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst (though those are great as well!). Up here, the hills are higher and big views give you a real sense of being out in the wilderness even though the nearest road or village is never far away. On this day, I had used the OSMaps app to make up a route that took us south from the car park, through Pits Inclosure and out onto the open heath at Long Bottom and Hampton Ridge. As we headed further on towards Latchmore Bottom, we stumbled across this herd of deer grazing in the bracken. With the wind in front of us, they seemed unbothered by our presence about 200m away, so we watched them for a while before circling around and continuing our stroll…

Canon EOS R, Canon EF 70-300 L IS