Puzzlewood, Coleford

Emily

WARNING: This next paragraph contains self pity, wallowing and despair which may not be appropriate for all audiences.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit poop. Firstly, little Miss Megan has passed. I’m so sad and not quite sure what to do with myself. She was a little angel on earth and I’m absolutely gutted. Dogs are so special and Megan really was one of the best. Secondly, there’s been another passing… my motorbike. After buying it and riding it for around five hours in total, it conked out as I was riding down a hill and wouldn’t start up again. The rectifier was over charging my battery and it almost blew up whilst I was sat on it, great! I have bought a prize lemon. With no news on New Zealand opening it’s boarders, working a job I don’t enjoy and having little time to myself, it feels a bit like everything is going down hill… without any power… Just like my motorbike.

Beautiful Meggy x

Taking day trips away from everything helps. So with the wallowing in my own self pity out of the way, let me tell you about my lovely day trip to Puzzlewood.

Puzzlewood is truly magical and a great place to forget reality. With its winding trails and twisting trees its just like an enchanted forest straight from a fairytale. There’s no wrong way to go around this trail but with its many pathways, it’s easy to get a bit lost. Located in the historic Forest of Dean, this was incredible to explore. Perhaps I should of worn my walking boots and not left them in the boot of my car though, whoops.

Fallen tree

I came here with my good friend Lucy. She lives in Malvern, so we try to meet somewhere half way that’s new to both of us. To get to Puzzlewood from Bristol takes roughly 45 minutes depending on traffic which surprisingly wasn’t too bad for a change!

Lucy who is much cooler than I will ever be

In Roman times Puzzlewood was originally used for mining iron ore. After this, it was left for nature to reclaim itself, I would say its done a pretty great job of it. With the exception of the pathways which were created in in the 1800s, the site remains unchanged and mother nature still holds a firm grip on her forest. Well apart from a few banisters, seats and bridges.

Best friends wear the same shoes

Puzzlewood has been used for many film sets in its past including; Star Wars, Sherlock Holmes, The Huntsman, The Secret Garden, Jack the Giant Slayer, Doctor Who and many more. With its unique surroundings its the perfect set for any fantasy story. I was surpised that Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings weren’t filmed here however, Puzzlewood is rumoured to of been an inspiration for both books and films.

Baby trees

You can’t tell but we had a gorgeous sunny day. The trees give such a thick coverage its like being under a giant green blanket.

Where Aragog lives

At the end of our walk we had lovely little picnic and went around to see the animals. I have decided that one day I would like to have a few goats, a couple of donkeys and perhaps a couple of cows. That’s a long with the dogs and cats of course. I’m not a huge fan of horses but I’m sure a couple of Shetland Ponies could fit into the farm family.

This was VERY slippy

Sorry this post isn’t my usual style, I don’t usually use this as a place to moan but there we go. I promise my next one will be more upbeat! Life permitting of course 😉

Posing in my inappropriate footwear, yes I did slip and skid more than once.

Published by Emily

A strong love and passion for travel, dogs, coffee, dogs and motorbikes. Yes, I did say dogs twice.

26 Comments

  1. So sorry about your dog and about your motorbike! No need to apologise about the moaning – this post is beautiful, gorgeous photos from a place that seems to have been out of a storybook! Hold on in there!

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    1. Thank you Nic! I don’t usually moan about things on here but it’s all that’s in my brain unfortunately! Working on the bike today so hopefully I’ll get it going again, fingers crossed 🤞🏻
      Thanks for reading 😊

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  3. I’m so sorry for the loss of your beloved pup and your bike. It’s unfortunate you have to work a job you don’t enjoy. I appreciate you being real, so whine away when needed 🙂

    What an amazing place. It looks like a great place to visit. I’m going to save the post in my “travel” folder, so I can check it out at some point.

    Hope things start looking up for you!

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    1. Thank you! ❤️ I’ve actually been tinkering with the bike today and I think that I’ve got it working. Going to spend some more time on it tomorrow so fingers crossed! 🤞🏻

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  5. Sorry for your loss. Emily, it is always excellent to travel with you since I am not in a position to travel. BTW, the best is always just ahead of you… wait for it. Wish you well.

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  8. is there any push in NZ to get the vaccine rate up and plans on opening up at a certain point in the rollout like there is here in Australia? I mean, we all live in hope that they will do what they say and open the borders at 80 percent. So maybe if you can make it here and the travel bubble might be reopened? Who can say though? It’s all up in the air. So sorry to hear about your dog, such warm caring creatures. Perhaps you can do some travel to Europe from there?

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    1. Not really sure. I know that Australia are changing their rules for the working holiday visa so potentially I could go there for another year if NZ is a no go. I’m 29 now so I’m worried about being in the age bracket for the visa. I have a couple of friends who are travelling around Europe so we might go meet up with them at some point. It’s all a bit up in the air here too at the moment travel wise so we’re sort of just waiting and watching how things go. Bloody covid!

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  9. Emily,

    Sorry for your loss, but maybe Puzzlewood reminds you that nothing ever deeply loved is ever lost.

    Thanks,

    Gary

    On Sat, Aug 7, 2021 at 1:03 AM The Blog of Travel wrote:

    > Emily posted: ” WARNING: This next paragraph contains self pity, wallowing > and despair which may not be appropriate for all audiences. The past couple > of weeks have been a bit poop. Firstly, little Miss Megan has passed. I’m > so sad and not quite sure what to do with ” >

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  12. If you can’t moan on your own blog, where can you??? Beautiful photos! I immediately told my best friend that we had to start wearing the same shoes 😆

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  14. Sorry to hear about Megan, that’s so sad 😦
    Puzzlewood looks like a wonderful place to escape to though! Definitely Forbidden Forest and LOTR worthy!

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