Inside the forest: The Watches record a woodland adventure

Around 13% of the UK is woodland, according to the Forestry Commission. But when you're in the midst of a woodland plantation, ancient forest or just surrounded by trees in your local park then you could be in another world.

We recently wrote on the BBC Springwatch blog about forest bathing - a Japanese trend that is coming to the UK - and how organisations are getting behind it as a way to relax. It's something we'll probably hear more about, and an area that The Watches is looking at more and more.

As part of this we decided to head out to one of our local woodland areas. As BBC Springwatch is based at BBC Bristol, we headed across the Severn Bridge to the Forest of Dean to record a beautiful natural experience. But what was it like? The people behind the feature have shared their experiences. 

You can hear and see the full soundscape here. 

What the experience meant to me

Chloe Mnatzaganian, Junior Researcher for BBC Springwatch

"There’s nothing quite like a woodland walk to immerse one’s self in natural world. This tactile and sensory world is a vision of familiar sounds, shades and scents. These are the colours of adventure and the smells of childhood games – the noises of a place where you are free from everyday stress.

When was the last time you just sat in nature, away from roads and buildings and the smartphone in your pocket? The moment you switch off from the busyness and the thoughts in your head, there are innumerable things to notice.

The crescendo of thousands of leaves coming to life in the summer breeze, the birdsong overhead, the dry twigs snapping beneath your feet, the smells of the earth, the colours of the fungi and the dappled light dancing on the forest floor. It is a place to simply exist in nature, as our ancestors did before us." 

"It's strange how much of our beautiful world you start to notice when your ears aren't being filled with the sounds of a combustion engine."

About the experience

Chris Hitchings, Social Media Producer for BBC Springwatch 

"I'm a big fan of forests. Growing up in Cumbria, one of my favourite places to visit was Grizedale. It's a huge forest on the top of a giant hill that falls steeply in to Coniston Water. Going back now brings back some great memories for me.

Forests are one of the only places I think you can really get away from the hubbub of the modern world. So it was a real pleasure exploring the Forest of Dean for the first time for this recording. 

We parked up the car in a small gravel lay-by and headed straight up a steep path between the trees. The recent heavy rainfall meant the ground beneath our feet was sodden. It also meant it was easy to see who else had been there before us. Fallow deer and some wild boar (or so we think) had left their footprints in the mud. Having recently seen a feature about wild boar on the TV I found it really exciting to be in an environment surrounded by them!

After climbing, scrambling and falling over several times into the think mud for about 25 minutes, we reached a location we thought perfect to record our audio.

We set up the microphone and listened. And listened. And listened.

It's strange how much of our beautiful world you start to notice when your ears aren't being filled with the sounds of a combustion engine. The tweet of birds in the distance was the best part of waiting for the audio to record - a wood pigeon called out loudly from a nearby tree as we sat and waited in silence (apart from the gentle crunch of an apple I was eating at the time). 

What was slightly frustrating was that we had to move location after a while as we noticed we could hear, in the very distance, the sound of cars. When your ears adjust to the natural silence of a forest you start to notice a totally different world. On top of that every so often a distant plane would fly overhead and we'd pick up the sound of it on the recording, so we had to wait a long time to make sure we couldn't hear anything that sounded like it was part of the modern world.

But when it was quiet it was beautiful. The rumble of the wind in the trees and the gentle patter of the leaves. Magical. I'd say we were in the forest for about three hours or so, and what a beautiful experience it was."