Jodi
As well as writing guidebooks about the New Forest area I have a number of other jobs. I am a part time teacher, examiner, outdoor instructor and soldier. I teach and examine GCSE Geography which is the usual outlet for my geo-geekiness. Whenever possible I work outdoors and I’m qualified to take people walking and climbing in the mountains. In addition I am a reservist Royal Engineer where I produce maps (more geekery).
I love to travel. The furthest from civilisation I have been is Friendship Peak (4082m), on the Mongolian-Chinese-Russian border. I am equally happy mountaineering in Scotland or Wales though or climbing on a sea cliff or in a quarry.
I was born and raised in Southampton, on the doorstep of the New Forest, and grew up visiting the area. Later in life I moved to Totton where I live a fifteen minute walk from the National Park boundary.
How New Forest 222 came to be
The initial inspiration for New Forest 222 came from a delightful book named Dartmoor 365 by Dartmoor aficionado John Hayward. I have owned a copy for over a decade and it is always in my bag when I take a trip to Devon. The premise for the title is that Dartmoor National Park covers (or covered) 365 square miles: one square mile for each day of the year. John Hayward overlaid Dartmoor with a square mile grid and wrote about a highlight in each square.
One gloomy December I spent two days tramping through the worst weather Dartmoor could throw at me. I travelled from the eastern edge of the moor to the Warren House Inn, near the centre. After drying my gear in the pub I set up a tent not far away, before returning to the edge of the moor by a different route the next day. This trip took in 22 ‘highlights’ including reservoirs, a prehistoric pound and some amusingly shaped rocks. Back home, the following day, I walked in brilliant sunshine into the New Forest and visited some sights I had never seen, even though they were so close to my doorstep. I thought to myself, ‘There needs to be a New Forest version of Dartmoor 365.’ And now there is.
New Forest 222 Plus
New Forest 222 Plus came about because I realised I had lots more material after the release of the first book. Many highlights sit just outside the New Forest boundary and couldn’t be incorporated into New Forest 222. In addition, I had discovered many additional highlights in the New Forest that I had no room for in the first book.
I changed the rules slightly, just making sure that all the squares abutted another square, rather than being a contiguous area. This allowed me to stretch the boundary from Christchurch to Salisbury, onto Romsey and then Hamble.
The books can work together or separately. For people living close to the New Forest boundary, New Forest 222 Plus may offer more places to visit. However, if you want to maximise the number of places to visit, owning both books would be best!
