Symonds Yat Wye Walkers and Puzzlewood Skywalkers

I recently subscribed to Disney Plus as I was struggling to find more decent shows to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime. I used to be a bit of a Star Wars nerd back in the day and Disney Plus has all the films plus a number of series they have released. I ended up watching the lot in a month-long binge and I'm now a proper Star Wars nerd again. I hadn't realised that some of The Force Awakens was filmed pretty close to home in Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean. It's not far at all from Symonds Yat which is a beautiful place in my home county of Herefordshire, but I haven't really spent a lot of time there for some reason. I like searching for decent places to go for dog walks and a Symonds Yat / Star Wars day looked ideal.

We drove to a car park near Yat Rock where you get the well known view of the Wye from up high. There were a few other people there. I asked one couple if they wanted me to take a picture of them, and if they could do the same for us in return. I took a lovely selection of photos with the river in the background. The bloke then took one photo of us blocking the river...

The view is amazing from Yat Rock though. We didn't see any of the peregrine falcons that are occasionally spotted here and evidently one visitor earlier in the day had been annoyed about it. 

After taking in the views, we went back across the road and through the car park to find a footpath down to the Wye on the reverse side of the hill from Yat Rock. We walked a long path down through woodland with the occasional glimpse of the river. 

When we were down on the banks of the Wye, we walked south, aiming for Biblins Rope Bridge which would take us over to the other side into Monmouthshire in Wales. Yat Rock is in Gloucestershire in the South West and Symonds Yat is in Herefordshire in the West Midlands, so this short walk would take us into two regions of England and another country. 

It's easy to see why this area gets packed with people from Bristol, Birmingham and further afield in the summer months. It's a stunningly beautiful place that isn't particularly far from those big cities. It was a cracking wander with the dogs and it wasn't too busy at this time of year. 

Then after about a mile or so we got to Biblins Bridge. It looks like one of those scary bridges you see on a documentary about someone hiking in South America. I imagine this one is safer than the average rope bridge in the Patagonian wilderness, but also a lot busier. It's only wide enough for one person and because it moves a bit, it takes people a while to cross. You'll wait for someone coming from the other side, then before they get to your side, someone else will have started crossing. I have pretty much zero patience, so after this happened three or four times I started getting annoyed. Eventually I had to squeeze past someone crossing over just to end the torment and change the direction of flow. Stace and the dogs then followed, and at that point we became the source of irritation as our one dog Dottie didn't like it much and basically froze. 

We got to the other side and arrived at our second country of the walk. I then realised that the crossing further up the river this side was a boat. I wasn't sure if dogs were allowed or if our dogs would like it less than the bridge. We decided we'd have to just cross the bridge again and walk back along the same route to the car. Thankfully Biblins Bridge was now quiet so we were straight across. 

We returned to the car via another corker of a viewpoint, ready to head 10 minutes down the road to Puzzlewood.

Unfortunately Puzzlewood is not dog friendly. Wookiees are allowed in, but not dogs. I guess Chewbacca is probably less likely to have a poo on one of the paths. We had to leave the dogs in the car, which was fine as it wasn't a hot day. I didn't expect us to be that long anyway as Stace thinks Star Wars is a load of shite. It was really good in there though and it definitely looks quite a lot like an alien landscape. It's known for its twisted tree roots, moss-covered rocks and secret pathways, and has inspired numerous fantasy stories. You can see why it was chosen to represent the scenery you'd find in a galaxy far, far away in The Force Awakens. I'd told Stace that it had also featured in a Harry Potter film, which got her a bit more interested. I don't think they actually did film any Harry Potter here, but I was only repeating a false rumour that I'd heard. 

We were there for 40 minutes ish and entry was £8, which is absolutely worth it. My only gripe was due to my own pathetic pettiness. Anyone that picked up a leaflet with a checklist of things to spot in the wood was asked to return their pen into Darth Vader's hollowed out head. Vader wasn't in The Force Awakens though and therefore has no connection to Puzzlewood. It should have been Kylo Ren's head really. I think deep down I was probably more annoyed at the fact that I was clearly a total loser for recognising this though. 

This part of the country has other Star Wars connections. David Prowse (who was the man in the Darth Vader suit) was from Southmead in Bristol, around 25 miles south of Puzzlewood. Maybe that was the reason for the weird pen container, which would ease my OCD a bit. Frank Oz who designed, puppeteered and provided the voice for Master Yoda, was born in Hereford 25 miles north of Puzzlewood. I have messaged Herefordshire County Council a few times on Twitter about getting a Yoda statue in the city centre, but they never reply. 

We left Puzzlewood and headed to the Miners Inn just down the road in a village called Sling for Sunday lunch. It was excellent and I highly recommend visiting this place if you decide to follow our "natural beauty for nerds" itinerary. It was the perfect end to a great afternoon in Herefordshire/Gloucestershire/Monmouthshire. You might need to be patient at the bridge crossing and give strict instructions to anyone taking a photo of you, but it's a wonderful area to visit.