01 / MISSION PROFILE
The shakedown doctrine, written as a route.
Every family’s first trip with a baby aboard needs the same four things: one base, two nights, a village within pram range, and nothing booked that can’t be dropped without a sigh. The New Forest supplies the rest — ponies through the pitches, deer on a platform half a mile of gravel from the car park, and the tallest trees in the south shading the whole experiment. Route planned, not yet driven — and this one gets driven first.
WORCESTERSHIREBROCKENHURSTBOLDERWOODLYMINGTONHOME
03 / JOURNEY LOG
Three days. Pitch, ponies, platform, home.
One drive in, one engine-light day in the forest, one gentle run home past the harbour where the next file’s ferry leaves.
Worcestershire → Hollands Wood
M5, A34 and into the oaks by early afternoon — choose-your-own-pitch under the canopy, first full setup with the smallest crew member as the whole day’s mission. Then the stroll into Brockenhurst: the ford, donkeys loitering outside the butcher, supplies for two nights. Back before dusk for the first systems check that actually matters.
NIGHT 1 / HOLLANDS WOODThe forest on foot: Bolderwood + Rhinefield
The file’s heart, and all of it pram-grade. Bolderwood late morning: the half-mile gravel trail to the deer platform, the keeper’s feed between roughly noon and three from April to September — white deer among the fallow if luck runs. Then Rhinefield Ornamental Drive: the tall-trees walk under Douglas firs older than the postbox. Picnic where the vans park; nothing here costs more than the donation box.
NIGHT 2 / HOLLANDS WOODLymington and home
Pack slow — the shakedown’s last lesson is how long packing really takes — then twenty minutes to Lymington for harbour air, a cobbled Saturday market if the day obliges, and a long look at the Isle of Wight ferry working its slipway: the next file leaves from here. M27, A34, M5, home by mid-afternoon with the doctrine proven.
HOME / WORCESTERSHIRE04 / OPERATIONS BRIEFING
The details that keep the adventure easy.
No tides, no ferries, no calendars — the only law here has four legs and right of way.
PRIMARY DISCIPLINETHE PONY CODE
PONANIMALS HAVE RIGHT OF WAY / FOOD LOCKED DOWNFOR
The commoners’ animals own the place
The ponies, donkeys, cattle and autumn pigs are not wildlife — they’re the commoners’ stock, and the forest runs on their terms. The code: never feed, never pet (it’s a finable offence, and it teaches ponies to mug tents — they will unzip an awning for a packet of wine gums), food locked in the van at night, 40mph on the open forest roads with animals given the verge and the right of way, and dogs close from March to July when the ground-nesting birds sit tight. Do all that and the animals do what they’ve done for a thousand years: wander through the pitches like the landlords they are.
One booking, then stop
1. Hollands Wood ×2 — the forest campsites run seasonally, roughly spring to autumn, and summer weekends sell out. 2. Nothing else. The deer platform is free, the drives are free, and the shakedown doctrine forbids any plan that can’t be abandoned by eleven o’clock.
Grass pitches, honest ground
Hollands Wood is grass under oaks: pick a pitch with firm approach lines, remember the ground bakes hard in drought and softens fast in rain, and the A337 hums beyond the trees — pitch deeper in for quiet. Bolderwood’s satnav wants SO43 7GQ, and the A31 junction beside it is not an entrance.
The whole point of the file
Everything is calibrated to the smallest crew member: one setup, one pack-down, trails that take a pram end to end, deer that come to the platform instead of being chased. Percy: on the lead around all livestock without exception, close March to July for the nesting birds, and in heaven the rest of the time.
Something will be missing
The first trip’s job is to find the gaps: the muslin left at home, the blackout that doesn’t, the bottle-warming answer that isn’t. Brockenhurst’s shops cover most emergencies and home is two hours away — which is precisely why the shakedown happens here and not in Assynt. Write the list on day three; the archive runs on it.
05 / UK ACCESS STACK
Forestry England’s file, end to end.
For once, one organisation carries the whole trip: the campsite sits in Forestry England’s woods, the deer platform is theirs, the ornamental drives are theirs, and the car parks run on their donation boxes. Membership is optional; gratitude isn’t. Carry physical cards where held; admission and parking rules vary by organisation and property.
Platform, drives and the pitches themselves
Bolderwood’s deer platform and its three graded gravel trails, Rhinefield’s giants, and the campsite in FE’s own oaks — the first file in the archive where a single steward covers every stop. The donation boxes are the membership.
Ponies through the pitches
Hollands Wood — 22 hectares of oak woodland run by Camping New Forest for Forestry England: choose-your-own-pitch, Brockenhurst on foot, and the commoners’ animals treating the site as part of their round. Seasonal opening; book the moment dates firm.
For the rainy-day pocket
Beaulieu’s motor museum and Palace House sit ten minutes east if the weather argues — a private estate’s honest ticket, monorail included — and Hurst Castle’s shingle spit waits for a future file. The shakedown buys neither unless it has to.
Why the ponies are here at all
The animals belong to commoners exercising rights older than the campsite’s oaks, watched over by agisters and the ancient Verderers’ Court. The file’s only obligation: drive at forest pace, give way, and leave the system exactly as found.
06 / EXPEDITION TOOLKIT
The cover, the shortcuts and the dog-walk wildcard.
The installed app deck is broad enough to cross-check pitches, navigation and live conditions. Use it as a layered toolkit—not as permission to ignore campsite arrival instructions, signs or local access rules.
INSURANCE / OWNER RECORDAPP INSTALLED
Grove & Dean
Full UK and EU cover, with full UK and EU breakdown assistance—as recorded from your policy information.
- Keep the Grove & Dean iOS app signed in and available.
- Cache the certificate, policy number and claims and breakdown telephone numbers for offline use.
- Before any EU run, re-read the territorial, trip-duration and driver wording in the actual documents.
DOG WALK / FLEX LAYERNO MEMBERSHIP NEEDED
Woodland Trust woods
A useful extra layer for Percy: Woodland Trust woods are free to visit, and its directory can surface short decompression walks around transit days — thin in the far north, useful on the M74 corridor.
- Search near the next fuel, lunch or overnight stop rather than forcing another major attraction into the day.
- Check each wood page for parking, livestock, seasonal work and path conditions.
- Follow local signs and the Trust's responsible dog-walking guidance.
INSTALLED APP DECK
Cross-check, download, then go offline.
01PITCH + PARK
Find the night
CAMC BookingSiteSeekerpark4nightCampercontactStayFreeCampyWikiCampssearchforsitesBrit StopsCampingCard ACSICampernightCampsites.co.ukHipcamp
02MAP + WALK
Navigate on and off road
WazeHiiKEROsmAnd MapsPeakVisorOS MapsOS Locatewhat3wordsOrganic MapsWikiloc
03FAR NORTH LAYER
Discover the route
Forestry EnglandMet OfficeOS MapsNHS 111What3Words
04UTILITY + EUROPE
Keep the vessel moving
StarlinkUlysaFerryLeShuttleGreen-ZonesFlushRainTodayMeteo-FranceLevel RemotePetrolPricesFlightradar24Club Magazine
FIELD RULEClub arrival directions beat Waze on the final approach. Download OS or OsmAnd mapping before the signal disappears.
07 / DEPARTURE CHECK
Ready the landship.
A short final check now prevents the unglamorous problems from hijacking the first few days.
Canvas clear, locked, verified
Pull the elevating-roof canvas clear, lower, twist-lock and physically check it — every departure, no exceptions — and under Hollands Wood’s oaks, check overhead before the roof goes up: branches drop sap and, in storms, worse.
Weigh the real expedition
Load exactly as you intend to tour and visit a weighbridge. The automatic's 370 kg must absorb crew, Percy, water and every bag — check total and axle weights.
One base, full facilities
Blocks and disposal at Hollands Wood — arrive brimmed, gas off at the internal shut-off for transit, and treat the two nights as the systems rehearsal: heating overnight, hot water at bath time, everything logged for the list.
Leisure battery green
Battery charged, solar clean and reporting, hook-up cable, adaptors and USB leads aboard. Grass pitches — check hook-up availability when booking and rehearse a night on the batteries anyway: that’s what shakedowns are for.
Restraints rigged
Child seat installation confirmed on the belted travel seats, and Percy's crash-tested harness or crate anchored on the activity deck — Highway Code rule 57.
Cards and cover to hand
Licences, insurance app signed in and cached, Booking confirmation, the baby’s red book, NHS 111 saved, What3Words on both phones — and the day-three list started before the engine does.
OFFICIAL RESOURCE DESK
Recheck before departure.
08 / OPEN MAP
Browse the Forest from home base.
The map opens on Brockenhurst at expedition scale. Pan, zoom and search freely — this is a planning surface, not a fixed route.
EXPEDITION FIELD / THE FIRST FILE DRIVENOpen full Google Maps ↗