A car-free trip to the Forest of Dean: a moss-cloaked corner of ancient England

09.04.2024 - 12:45 / theguardian.com

It’s so dark, it makes no difference whether my eyes are closed or open. The only sound is breathing and a faint ripple when I weightlessly shift position in the salt-laden, skin-warm fluid. Inside an egg-shaped pod at Float in the Forest, one of my personal nightmares (being left alone for an hour with my own thoughts and no distractions) turns out to be a strange, peaceful experience, where time is condensed and space expands. Initially sceptical, my husband, Luke, also emerges from his pod and declares the experience “profoundly relaxing as few things are” (£60, book ahead).

We’re visiting the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire for a car-free spring break and our hotel is a leafy 15-minute bus ride from the flotation centre. Thrice-daily bus 27 is cash only with no number on the front (just the company name FR Willetts), and people greet each other as they board. We chat to Julia, “born and bred a forester and proud of it”, who tells us: “Town people are weird. They don’t understand the slow pace of country life.” As if to prove her point, at that moment the bus detours carefully round a sheep with two new lambs suckling unconcernedly in the middle of the road.

After the float, we hike five miles through the rainy forest to the Cycle Centre. On the way, wet branches and bracken are wreathed in soft wool from free-ranging forest sheep that have wandered past. There are trees full of siskins and goldfinches, there are mandarin ducks on an old ironworks’ pond, and banks of wood anemones and primroses. The air is noisy with spring birds and smells of rich earth, churned up by resident wild boar. Underfoot there are pungent, bright-green wild garlic leaves and pine needles, all enhanced by the morning’s misty drizzle and our earlier sensory deprivation.

These woods may feel remote, but it’s quite possible to get around on foot, by bike or on public transport: there are several regular bus routes and a bookable demand-responsive minibus called The Robin. From Gloucester railway station, bus 24 runs right into the forest and stops outside the place we’re staying, 17th-century Speech House (doubles from £103 room-only). A few miles west of the forest’s main town, Cinderford, Speech House was built as a hunting lodge and forest court and is still leased from the crown. Breakfast is served in the courtroom with its stone fireplace, wall-mounted antlers, original carved oak chairs (chained to the wall since they were stolen in 2005) and copies of the 1221 Verderers’ charter over the coffee pot.

The Forest of Dean’s 42 square miles have been well trodden over the past thousand years: the Normans hunted boar here, Tudor monarchs turned its trees into warships. For centuries, freeminers have dug coal and iron ore