An idiots guide to an idiot: Pleasant walk

Went off with Ida today to walk in the Forest of Dean. Quite a climb to start with but it eventually evened out by this time time we were in the forest proper. There's wild Boar round here and I passed a few signs that stated 'Feral Boar,' unfortunately didn't see any, I expect they are far too wiley for that,but did find what I think are boar tracks and could definitely hear them.
Plodded along with Ida, who was enjoying all the sniffs. I wasn't absolutely sure what track I was on, just the general direction. Turns out I was pretty accurate as I was able to ask a dog walker once we'd joined civilization again. I was of course hoping to find a pub for a beer mid walk, the dog walker only knew of one & that was off where I was going so it was a 'dry' walk. Only had one brief stop. I had a slice of cake (left for us by the cottage owner which was nice) and a couple of treats for Ida that we'd been given at Goodrich castle yesterday.
The forest paths were a mixture of close woodland with various types of tree to wider paths with fields with hedges Heard some raptors overhead, couldn't identify them though. Some of the paths were quite muddy, not surprising as the rain has been torrential. Still very pleasant walking though.
All went well and we were near the final descent back into Mitcheldean when we came to a field of cows. Mixture of cows and bulls to be exact. Now I'll happily walk across a field a of cows but there was what I think was a youngster who came galloping over and in fact kept with us very keenly as we walked round the edge, then the old bull looked up menacingly at us & I decided it probably wasn't such a good idea. Tried to go round the field but that proved impossible, looked at going across the field with the bulls and cows again and did climb over the style but got such a death stare off the bull thought better of it! Could have back tracked but seemed a shame to do that so tried to cut across with the intention of then finding a way down. We were able to follow some styles so it was a path,there was some strange monoliths on the hilltop near us, couldn't quite get to them, one was like the stones on Easter Island. Many of the styles round here just aren't made for dogs, so four times I had to lift Ida over. She doesn't like being lifted and was no help when I had to do it, I was very conscious of getting all four legs over the style before I could put her down & she's no lightweight! She saw a deer and almost bolted but she's very good and didn't move when I told her to stay. Climbed one style that pretty well crumbled as we climbed over it only to find thicket, brambles and nettles everywhere and no clear path. Stumbled around there until I decided we were getting nowhere fast. When we climbed back over the style we'd climbed across I noticed a sign that stated it was private. Bugger! Pushed on anyway and eventually got out onto the road I thought we'd find. There was a really good view point on one of the bends that looked towards the Severn Estuary, a great view. The road walk down the hill was bit of a sod. Bloody great articulated lorries were belting up the hill passing what seemed like inches from us. I should probably have braved the field with cows and bulls! Got back OK, we were out just under four hours & I think we'd only walked about 4 miles which is slow but alot of the beginning and middle were uphill. Enjoyed it, as did Ida, I think!