Yoga and mountain bike retreats
​SURREY HILLS 

Our yoga & mountain bike retreats are the love child of Moon Forest Flow’s yoga retreats with our Trail Unknown mountain bike trips, united by a love for nature and inspired by the spirit of adventure. The retreats are themed around the changing of the seasons and are set in a quaint 1920's National Trust chalet nestled in the Surrey Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty. 

We started running these retreats together with Carly in 2017 and our adventures have taken us through Exmoor, Dartmoor and the Surrey Hills and have involved yoga (indoors and out), yoga nidra, beginner’s mountain biking, hill walking, wild swimming, camping, night walks, star gazing, forest bathing and more…

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'Rewilding Retreat with Carly, Tom and Hugo. Totally blew my mind, what a mix. Beautiful and experiential yoga with Carly. Exciting, muddy, wonderful mountain biking in the Surrey Hills led by Tom and Hugo. Each person knew their stuff, each person was passionate, each person was so knowledgeable. I loved it. Thank you to the three of you for such a wonderful experience.'
​- Debby, Buckinghamshire

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What will we be doing?
The weekend is jointly hosted by the wonderful Carly of Moon Forest Flow who will lead yoga and meditations in the mornings and evenings, while we will be leading scenic mountain bike rides in the afternoon aimed at a beginner to intermediate standard. We will cycle through the beautiful forests and explore the surrounding areas of the Surrey Hills. Mountain bikes will be provided for those who need them and are included in the price. ​ ​The theme of the weekend will be around embracing the changing of the seasons so we'll get outside, see the sights by bikes, put smiles on our faces, get muddy and come home to enjoy hot showers, an open fire place and the sound of Carly's soothing voice. ​ There will also be opportunities for night walks, star gazing and wild swimming.

Where will we be staying?

• Henman Bunkhouse near Leith Hill, Surrey Hills

Henman Bunkhouse is a quaint 1920’s Swiss Chalet style bungalow located on the National Trust’s Leith Hill Estate. The bunkhouse can accommodate up to 16 people in two six person dormitory style rooms and a four person room, with two female bathrooms and two male bathrooms containing baths, showers and toilets. The bunkhouse has a fully equipped kitchen, large dining space, ten parking bays, private garden, washing machine, drying room, central heating and an open log fire (wood and marshmellows will be supplied). You will need to supply your own bedding or sleeping bag.

​What do I need to bring?
We will send out a kit list with the itinerary but the main things are:

• Clothes for the outdoors - waterproofs, spare shoes,  warm jumpers
• Your sleeping bag, pillow and any extra blankets you might want
• Your bike (we can arrange bike hire for you)
• A torch for star gazing walks

About the mountain biking
Tom and Hugo (Trail Unknown) are British Cycling qualified mountain bike instructors and are passionate about sharing their love of mountain biking. We will start with building bike confidence with skills practices before and during our ride. You can expect the ride to be a gentle 2 - 3 hours with plenty of breaks to take in the sights.  We'd classify this style of mountain biking as 'scenic cross country' so it will be friendly for beginners and also enjoyable to riders with some experience. We can always ride more for intermediates who want more at the end. Mountain bike hire is included but feel free to bring your own if you have one. You will need to have a basic level of fitness and know how to ride a bike. Your under no pressure to come cycling if you feel like reading or going for a gentle stroll, but the biking is always fun!

​About the yoga
Yoga allows us a moment of respite from the relentless pace of modern life, giving us a taste of what life can be like when we slow down and simplify. Yoga gives us explicit permission to stop and rest; to start to tune back into our natural rhythms and our true nature, to discover who we are behind our social conditioning, what is expected of us and what we do. Yoga teaches us to value ourselves in terms of the quality of our relationships and health rather than our possessions and wealth. It provides the tools to help us to rewire our brains, reminding us how to relax, think and feel, allowing us to better understand and process our emotions and make better choices. 

About Carly's Teaching Style
I seek to promote a culture of inner listening and self-enquiry in my classes, inviting students to listen inwardly before moving outwardly, over time developing a strong relationship to their own unique inner teacher. Our movement has become constrained, habitual, repetitive and rigid, yet another way for us to keep our bodies under tight control. I like to invite a surrender to the flow, a release from the expectations of consistency, predictability and infinite resource and a deeper dive into infinite pool of wisdom within. It is here that we experience freedom beyond form and are empowered to practice in a way that is fluid and adaptable to the waxing and waning of our needs and natures.

Food and Drink
​We will be providing meals on the Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Before morning yoga we will put out fruit, teas and coffees and come back for a hearty brunch before our ride. Along our afternoon ride we will have the opportunity to pick up food and hot drinks, and return to base for some fresh baked cakes (if we have our trusty helper with us). To give a few examples of the meals we cook in the evenings; sweet potato and mango curry with cashews, burritos with refried beans, pineapple and peppers. And for the mornings; cinnamon and banana porridge, yoghurts, seasonal fruits and nuts. We can cater for most dietary requirements, please just make sure we know about them. All food and drink will be vegan. 
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​Rewilding
Wild as a word stems from the word ‘wildeor’ meaning self-willed and wilderness from ‘wildeorness’, the home of self willed animals, so to allow nature to be wild is to allow the flora and fauna to behave and live intuitively, freely and without restriction including our very own species; humans. Rewilding has since come to be used in many different contexts, including the rewilding of human life, allowing humans to behave, think, feel and live in ways that we have long forgotten. Rewilding our lives to remember that deep in our bellies and our hearts we are still wild animals, clawing at the walls of our self-made enclosures, desperate to escape domestication and live self-willed lives. All of our striving, seeking and struggling is just years of evolution manifesting in our modern minds as they adapt to a strange and unnatural environment but when we reconnect to our natural home and our natural state we are reminded that life doesn’t need to be so complicated. Rewilding reminds us that our purpose is and always has been to simply exist, to revel in the experience of being alive.

‘Rewilding is about becoming re-enchanted with nature. It is about nurturing our sense of wonder.’ – Marc Bekoff

Nature and Health
We are not supposed to live full tilt, constantly under attack from a barrage of external and internal stimulus, our ancestors would have shifted between short bursts of reactive stress (running from predators) and long periods of responsive recovery (digesting in the sun). Our modern way of living violates this natural cycle and leaves us with a baseline of perpetual stress. Nature is a natural antidote to our unnatural lives and has been scientifically proven to reduce the levels of cortisol and adrenaline in our bodies. Yoga and meditation are the perfect accompaniments to nature as they too work with the body and mind to promote relaxation, which can overtime help us to bring our baseline back to a more natural, balanced state.

Is this trip for me?
It doesn't matter what age you are or what experience you have with yoga or mountain biking, if you want to go out for a weekend into nature and try some cool stuff with a bunch of nice people then this trip is for you! Come alone or invite friends. If you have any questions please contact us.

Enquire about a private trip