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Sophie
Pierce |
Writer and Broadcaster |
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If you go down to the woods today you might be in
for a bit of a surprise. The UK’s first ‘activity forest’ is officially
opening, and although you won’t find Easter bunnies, or indeed teddy bears,
Haldon Forest near Exeter in Devon has been filled with a vast network of
fitness trails, so you can work off all that chocolate. The forest, consisting mainly of conifers, stretches
over three and a half thousand acres on a high ridge with beautiful
views. It’s the first in a series of
new ‘forest parks’ which have been designed with exercise in mind; the second
will open at Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent in May, followed by Rosliston Forestry
Centre in Derbyshire in June. The rangers at Haldon, whose job used to be all
about managing timber, are now into health promotion as well. Bridgette Hall says it’s not just the trees
that are valuable, but the space
between them. “Usually you go to a countryside location and just walk. Here the idea is that you can progress
through different levels of activity - walking, running or cycling - and
gradually get your fitness levels up.” There are 25 miles of trails at Haldon, for all
abilities. For cyclists there are three courses: the family, adventure and
mountain biking trails; for walkers there are courses of different lengths
and difficulty, and there are tracks for horse riders including a
gallop. There‘s a volleyball and
training area, and loos and showers.
Eventually there will be calorie mapping signs at the end of each
trail, to tell you how much energy you’ve burned. Some of the courses contain unusual pieces of
equipment to add challenge and variety.
There are vast wooden musical instruments on the play trail, as well
as climbing poles and a small football pitch. On the mountain bike course,
aimed at experienced off-roaders, there is a ‘helter skelter’ – a twisting
raised platform - as well as jumps and steep ramps. Mountain biker Kevin Blackmore appreciates
the fact that people doing different activities are segregated. “It’s nice to
go for a ride and know you don’t need to worry about bumping into families
with dogs and kids, or that you’re breaking any bye-laws.” Helen Lynch has been running in the forest for the
last five years. “In the past it felt eerie, there were a lot of fir trees
right up close to the track and I would feel uncomfortable running on my
own. Now they’ve opened the tracks up
a bit, which is good.” The transformation of Haldon has not been cheap.
It’s cost £1.4M – with half the money coming jointly from Sport England and
the Lottery Fund, both of which are helping fund the schemes in Kent and
Derbyshire. But does turning forests into adventure playgrounds
amount to suburbanisation? Ian Lynch,
the project manager at Haldon, says: “We have 3,500 acres, and we’ve
developed less than 100. We’ve done it
sympathetically; the trails help take people further into the forest than
perhaps they would have gone before.” |
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