Jigsaw Forest

You can rightly accuse me of being an enigmatic travel blogger. It takes a sudden bout of emails asking where posts are shot for me to realise that you must be thinking me a No1 master of playing frustration games on people, but I promise that isn't the case, and resolve to be more inclusive. In the words of Seneca, give candy if you want to feel like candy. Si vis amari, ama.

Looking at the visuals in this post, your mind will mostly likely be making fantasy film associations at 100mph, and, if you watch enough TV (I don't. Am I missing out?), most of them will actually be for a very good reason. What do Merlin, Atlantis, Jack the Giant Slayer and Dr Who all have in common? All were filmed in this little nook of the Forest of Dean, and the little nook is called Puzzlewood. Now, in case you cannot work out from the photos -which might do my outfit justice but not the place - what makes Puzzlewood different from, say, any other old forest, the answer is: a lot. For starters, it is mind-bogglingly ancient, and, like so many other sites in this country (part of what makes UK travel so great), remains near-unchanged from its possibly prehistoric original condition. The natural green rocky formations, called scowles, are a local phenomenon. Think caves wrenched inside out and overgrown with ferns. Most of all, however, even if you don't remember any of that stuff, not even the fact that the site was used as early as the Iron Age by settlers, Puzzlewood is well worth the visit just for its unusual, and inadvertently striking architecture. Puzzle-bonus: many striking Wye landmarks await nearby, so you can make a day of it. Speaking of which...
Stay tuned for part two, and for tips on how to do Wye Valley in a day. Unless you'd prefer me to go back to being enigmatic and not writing about stunning locations in a mediocre way. Which I would totally understand.
~ Tweed blazer, shirt, and cords, vintage Fairisle jumper, vintage M&S Chelsea boots, c/o Dr Martens Glasses, Specsavers