I am on the edge of a small lake in the middle of a forest in Cornwall. It’s pitch black — so dark I can hardly see the forest ranger by my side who has just handed me a pair of night-vision binoculars. These are state of the art; the type used by armies across the globe as well as by the British police.

I turn on the binoculars — and suddenly a whole new world emerges. Where there was once a black void I can now make out a small island in the middle of the lake and a far bank covered with pine trees. Every detail of the scene is there in the digital display, marked out clearly in green, courtesy of the binoculars’ infrared beams.

Feeling like a Middle East soldier searching for insurgents, I scan the lake. No baddies, only a couple of ducks near the island. They paddle away peacefully, oblivious to being observed by military technology.

“If we were out in the open we could see as far as 600 metres,” says Martin Summers, the ranger at Deerpark, 160 acres of Forestry Commission land just south of Bodmin Moor. He has just spent hundreds of pounds (each pair of binoculars costs £750) on equipment to create “night vision” tours unlike any other in the country.

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Summers says that bats, owls, moths, foxes, deer, rodents and even the occasional badger can be spotted. The ranger loves his gadgets, pulling an ultrasound bat detector from a pocket: “This little box of tricks goes crackle-crackle-crackle when a bat passes by.” Then he blows on a special whistle, hooting like an owl, and waits for a distant reply.

Deerpark is one of six holiday camps on Forestry Commission land — part of a grand plan to establish a network of sites with well-appointed cabins across the country. A little over two years ago the commission formed a partnership with the Camping and Caravanning Club to offer cabins with kitchens, hot-tubs, wood-burning heaters and flat-screen TVs.

The scheme helps to pay for the maintenance of trails and the planting of new trees. Such has been the success of the first three camps in Cornwall, Scotland and Yorkshire that three more have opened this year and several others are in the pipeline. Ten years from now there could be as many as 20 Forest Holidays camps, as they are known.

I’m staying in a treehouse cabin by the lake. It is fantastic, with furnishings made of old pieces of oak, a comfortable double bed, en suite bathroom, and a neat balcony built into the hexagonal shape of the building, through which a live oak grows.

The treehouse is connected to a separate A-shaped structure with a kitchen, living room, two twin bedrooms and a master bedroom — in all providing sleeping space enough for eight people. This is the largest of the 45 cabins at Deerpark and already hugely popular with guests (book well ahead).

Ranger tours are on offer from £5 per person, lasting two hours. On the new “night-vision” trip we walk through corridors of vast pines, spotting ravens and wood pigeons but failing, unfortunately, to see a bat (it’s too misty). But that doesn’t matter. The binoculars themselves are novelty value enough.

Walking through a blackened forest and being able to see everything without a torch is incredibly odd and strangely liberating ... almost as though you’ve developed a sixth sense.

Retreat into luxury with a clear conscience, says Anna Shepard

On the first morning in our eco-friendly luxury lodge, we are woken early by a thudding sound. Tiptoeing into the open-plan living room, we discover that a two baby birds have flown into the glass walls and fallen stunned on to our wooden terrace. I flap about eager to resuscitate them, but in the end they fly off without any help.

However impressed we might be that our hideaway blends so perfectly into the surrounding woodland, who’s to know what the local wildlife thinks.

With a green sedum roof, glass walls and wooden decking, you can’t blame the birds. It’s hard to spot any of the 19 holiday homes tucked away at the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

They are sunk into the hillside so that you can’t see them from the road. Natural Retreats aims to provide luxury accommodation that is also sustainable and this is the first development. Fourteen similar sites have been identified for development by 2011.

It certainly has the luxury part right. Don’t come here for a rustic cottage with crumbling walls and an Aga. Our three-bedroom apartment has a show-home feel, and the design is contemporary. The kitchen is better equipped than mine at home, with a dishwasher and microwave; our bedroom has an en suite wet room, and there’s underfloor heating, plus a huge flat-screen TV, DVD player and sound system in the main room.

It all runs off a green energy tariff. Before long I’m installed on a vast leather sofa, digibox in hand, watching rabbits hop on to the terrace and experiencing rainstorms as if I was out in them, but without the soggy clothes. For people who don’t like to forgo creature comforts when they visit the countryside, it’s the ideal weekend retreat.

Is it really possible to combine luxury with sustainability? A journalist had previously criticised the Tropicana orange juice and New Zealand apples in the welcome hamper. That’s been sorted; ours is full of local cheeses, Fairtrade white wine and organic muesli. Our hamper comes from the local grocer, who we are encouraged to visit for supplies.

Natural Retreats employs local people and provides financial support for the local economy, but it has no facilities onsite. For anything other than accommodation, guests are packed off to Richmond — ideally, on foot.

Luckily, it’s a pleasant 25-minute walk into the town centre, along footpaths and quiet roads. Plus, our goodies from the farmers’ market — a giant pork pie, Swaledale cheese, some fiery tomato chutney and a Yorkshire parkin for tea — taste all the better for being lugged up the hill.

In the afternoons, we could go fishing, biking or horse riding, but walks down to the River Swale and along the coast-to-coast footpath suit us fine. Sufficient exercise so that at the first hint of daylight fading, we can scurry back to the sofa, light the fire and slump in front of that big telly.

NEED TO KNOW

Night safaris Forest Holidays (0845 1308223, www.forest holidays.co.uk) has a week in a cabin sleeping four from £236 a week and £130 for a three-night weekend. The treehouse cabin is from £858, rising to £1,975 in peak season. A three-night weekend is from £417.

Eco Lodge Natural Retreats (0161-242 2970, www.naturalretreats.com) in the Yorkshire Dales, which sleeps six, costs from £360 for two nights in low season (includes linen, logs and food hamper). See the website for other properties Ireland.

For ideas on UK country breaks see www.enjoy england.com/ruralescapes

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