The New Forest is a haven for cycling – and whizzing through the trees on an e-bike leaves more time for ice cream and cake breaks

‘No one,” says Clare, grinning broadly and handing me a cycle helmet, “comes back sweating from one of our rides.” Looking at the Super Monkey I’m about to clamber on to – a gleaming black machine, modelled rather like a Chopper bike from the 1970s, only with triple-width tyres and the (all-important) powerbox attached to the main stem – I can believe it. Synch ebikes, available to rent from Clare and Lisa at Jaunt-E Bikes, are the last word in effort-free cycling, and the best way to delve into the depths of the New Forest.

It’s a grey, drizzly morning when I set off from my Brockenhurst bolthole, Cottage Lodge, cycling gingerly up the busy A337 before turning down a gravel track into the forest. At first the bike feels a bit like being on a horse – raring to go every time I put my foot down – but I soon get used to it, whizzing happily past runners and analogue cyclists, the wide, “comfort” saddle shielding me from the worst of the uneven, gravelly track. Within minutes, I’m immersed in the forest; waves of ferns rippling out beneath towering oak and beech trees.