Leaving Gandalf (aka Bill Uwin) and my van behind at the delightful Shapwick Heath, Dan drove us all onwards towards the mighty Forest of Dean where we were meeting Craig for the next stage in our adventure. Everyone was running on a high after our incredible water beetle experience and with thoughts of what we hoped tonight would bring...

Some while later we arrived at Cinderford and eventually managed to find Craig who was waiting for us in a secluded car park. Graeme had never met Craig before, Dan and I hadn't seen him for almost a year, so it was handshakes all around again before we took a gentle amble through this part of the forest. Call it a recce for what was to come as darkness fell. We kept an eye open for Upright Spurge (Euphorbia stricta) which is very local in Britain but certainly around in this general area. How general we didn't exactly know. Still, if you don't look...

We wandered up the slope to a nice man-made pond noticing leaping fish, and continued round in an effort to learn the lay of the land. This was important for what we had in mind later on. We ambled down a broad track and eventually came back full circle to the campervan. Next we struck through a patch of woodland I was intimitely familiar with...this is where I had found my Wild Boar several weeks ago! The only thing of note this time around was the large number of Horse-chestnut leaves infected with the browning fungus Guignardia aesculi. I pointed it out to the others but they didn't seem particularly bothered. Hey Dan, Graeme - just in case you're reading this - this is what I was trying to show you, lol

I'm sure 99% of us overlook this, just seeing a leaf turning brown at the edges. It's what happens in the autumn, right? Well yes, but in this instance you're looking at the fungus Guignardia aesculi not just a withering leaf, the bright yellow border at the edge of the brown patches are highly distinctive. Also visible are several leafmines belonging to the Horse-chestnut Leafminer (Cameraria ohridella). So, in a nutshell, you're looking at three non-native species in one, all very common and increasingly widespread nowadays. Personally I think it's all pretty cool stuff.

Finally it started to get dark. Dan had baited the area outside the campervan with apples and oats and set up a perimeter of solar lights. We settled down to wait, apart from a few dodgy-looking folks in cars who quickly drove away again, all was quiet. Too quiet. We grew restless, Craig, Graeme and Dan were all itching to experience their first Wild Boar. I'd already done a quick bit of stealth ninja'ing down the track back towards the road, just a lone Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and a stag Fallow Deer (Dama dama) with massive antlers. I was making my way back towards the campervan when the others arrived, torches in hand. We'd already made a mental map of our surroundings and the terrain. We'd find the boar...either that or they'd find us...We'd all noted masses of rootlings and grubbing up of the undergrowth. Tracks and a few droppings too. Danny had earlier found a bone which looked suspiciously like a boar's leg bone. Or maybe a small child's?

Into the dark forest we descended, single file as I led through the low branches towards the spot I'd found my Wild Boar. But we were making too much noise, not a hope. Eventually we arrived at a boar-damaged wire fence. We climbed over and followed the fire break, planning a large loop through the forest, then up to the open area by the lake, which looked especially promising. Here in the open Graeme moved forward to take point, which made sense seeing as he had by far the largest spotlight. First up was a Badger (Meles meles) *Quick question, do ALL mammals have scientific names like this? Vulpes vulpes, Dama dama, now Meles meles? What's going on?* which barrelled across the path and into woodland. We all saw it well, then again when Graeme lit it up it in the sparse cover beneath pine trees. Brilliant, I just don't enjoy enough Badger encounters (steady on...)

A Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) called nearby, a sudden flash of movement had us all spinning on our heels - just in time to see the back end of a Rabbit (Lepus curpaeums...phew, curse broken!) disappear into the bushes. The track narrowed and eventually petered out completely and we were forced to forge our own trail for a short distance before unexpectedly arriving at the top of the car park we'd parked in. Cool. We had a quick look at the baited area, didn't appear to have been visited yet, and continued past the lake to the hilly open area that looked so promising earlier on. Graeme halted us, had he heard something? Playing his spotlight across the meadows we suddenly saw eyeshine as a whole sounder of Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) blinked back at us. WOW!!!! A whole bunch of them! I raised my binoculars whilst they were still in the light and quickly counted four animals, maybe five, as they suddenly broke into a quick trot and headed off into nearby cover. We all grinned to each other, four different gibbering mouths all talking simultaneously. As one we quickly dashed up a steep, slippery slope and tried to anticipate whereabouts the boar would break cover down beneath us. We could still hear them grunting and cracking dry sticks somewhere below, but the sounds faded as they moved away and eventually we figured we'd have to go to them rather than hope for a reappearance.

Under the dense pine tree cover we walked into a deep, impenetrable blackness. Flicking on the torches we found ourselves in an alien landscape, bare forest floor with many strange mounds in evidence. I thought anthills, but they were wrong. Graeme wondered if they were long dead Mollinia tussocks. We just didn't know. We heard the sound of traffic and decided to head to the road and follow it back toward the campervan. With very little in the way of traffic, we found it easier to walk down the middle of the road, still on a high and babbling on about the boar. Suddenly, without warning, there was a huge ghostly apparition in the road ahead of us - it was the stag Fallow Deer I'd seen earlier, the one with the huge antlers! Now we'd all seen it, Danny quickly rattled off a couple of shots before it silently moved into the woodland once more. It felt almost as though we'd witnessed something supernatural. What did it mean? Was it trying to tell us something? We all felt strangely as though we'd been destined to have encountered that deer. Can't explain it, but that's what we felt.

Our close encounter of the...supernatural...kind?

In an odd kind of mood now, we returned to the campervan for a beer or three, Graeme and I turned in for the night. Danny and Craig went back up to the open hill and waited for the boar to return - which they did in spectacular fashion. Graeme and I were a litte green with envy when Dan related how one had come rushing up the hill towards him, literally skidding to a halt when it spied him just a few yards upslope! Together they'd seen the whole sounder feeding just beneath them, working in pairs to heave the earth aside. Damn, Graeme and I should have manned-up and joined them! Still, no use bitching about it now. We decided to return here on the way back in two nights time. Have another try...