If you go down to the woods today
There aren’t many places in Britain where the landscape makes you feel like you’re in another continent altogether. But for a few magical moments, we found in the unlikeliest of locations – just a few miles west of Consett… Words: Olly Sack Pictures: Richard Hair
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e’re on our own, just us and our truck. There’s not a sign of anyone close by, not a soul. No shortage of wildlife, no doubt, but the next human being could be fifty miles away. In every direction, it’s nothing but trees, thousands,
maybe millions of towering conifers blanketing the hillsides that roll off into the distance as far as the eye can see. The trail we’re following, its bumpy, sandy surface leading off into the distance, is the only break in the unrelenting greenery. We could be out here in the vast boreal forests of Norway or Canada,
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ascending the slopes of some lush Alpine range or pushing eastward through the bleakening Steppes of the near east. Those trees could conceal lynx, caribou, timber wolves, even grizzlies… And then a foxhound trots past. It turns its head briefly to give me an inquisitive glance as I lean out
my window to look at it then carries on in the direction of whatever scent it’s following. Oh yes. It’s easy to let your imagination run free in a landscape like this, even if in truth the vision of a genuine wilderness only comes in fleeting glances. But right now, we’re only about five miles south of
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