New forest guided day tours
Fuzzacker Guided Walks provide a range of walks led by guides who live within the New Forest and all of whom are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the history, traditions, and wildlife of this spectacular and unique area.
We specialise in taking people off the beaten track to places they may not otherwise go or be aware of and we take time to explain the landscape, the special role of the grazing animals and the cumulative effect of a nearly a thousand years of management.
All routes are safety checked and guides are fully insured and first-aid trained. Walks are conducted at a comfortable pace and medical kit, maps and GPS are always carried.
Walks can be all day or just part of a day and can be tailored to suit requirements if required e.g. photography, deer-spotting or flora and fauna expeditions. We have experience in leading large parties and educational groups and have an excellent track record with coach parties.
The Fuzzacker guides are special in that they all have other active roles in the New Forest being involved in conservation, keeping native ponies and other such pursuits. This gives a unique insight into the infrastructure of this working landscape which is passed on to visitors with great enthusiasm and is always well received.
How this holiday makes a difference
Landscape
Experiences in the landscape: this is precisely what our walks and talks are all about! We are very proud of our heritage and obtain great pleasure in "showing it off" to our visitors. In designing a walk route we make an effort to include a variety of landscape, from heathland, through woodland pasture to forest inclosure and, as we pass through, we give more detail about each area and how it has come about. Visitors particularly like to hear about the ponies, their management and their important role in shaping the environment.
As local guides it is important that we point out any special sights or sounds that our guests may otherwise miss e.g. the call of a nightjar on a summer evening or a Dartford Warbler flitting through a gorse bush. The local name for the latter is Fuzzacker from which I took the name and which I like to explain to people.
One of my favourite things is finding two trees growing together in a natural graft, the proper term for which is an inosculation - usually between an oak and a beech - and visitors are always fascinated by this phenomenon.
There is a mass of information available to tell people and we have to manage it in such a way that we do not overburden them with too many facts and figures but provide the relevant points in an engaging and entertaining manner. But we encourage interaction and questions and try to ensure that visitors go home with a much better knowledge of the New Forest.
