New Forest 17 – 20 Sep 2011

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17 Sep Sat Perth, Hong Kong, Heathrow, New Forest
Our trip to London was relatively uneventful. Leaving at 10:15pm meant it was fairly easy to sleep or at least nod off while watching movies. We had a very short stop over in Hong Kong, not even enough time to do a spot of shopping. As it turned out, because it was 6:30am, the airport shops weren’t even open.
The transit ticket checkers at Hong Kong didn’t like our on line check in printed boarding passes, so after waiting in a long queue, we had to queue again, and wait for a carded boarding pass to be printed with the exact same information and bar codes!
We arrived in London slightly early but this was all undone as David’s bag didn’t arrive at the same time as the others. So much for little suitcases. It must have been stowed with other similar little bags as they came out about 30 minutes later on a separate carousel just as we were registering at lost baggage. Barry had to hang around for a while wondering where we were, which was a shame.
Barry drove us to New Forest which was about 1.5 hours south of London and Heathrow. He has a nice new Citroen with a sun roof. Not sure why you need one of these in England!
On the way to Barry and Sally’s home, we drove over cattle grids which signify the border of New Forest. Horses, deer, pheasants and pigs wander freely across the fields, around the houses and across the roads. They have right of way over cars. We actually drove past a couple in Seaman’s Lane.
Barry and Sally’s home, the Agister’s Cottage, in New Forest is lovely. We were very comfortable in our bedroom with our own little bathroom closet. Amazing what is possible in small spaces. Sally had baked a lovely lemon drizzle cake. We sat in the conservatory having our first English beer and catching up on news. Suddenly, a storm came through and it hailed on our roof and the garden. Wasn’t this the beginning of Autumn?
Despite the weather, we decided to chance a walk to the local pub for dinner. On with the spray jackets, which were a last minute but now valued purchase before we left Oz. A short seven minute walk, only elongated from dodging horse dung along the road, we arrived at The Trusty Servant. What a lovely, typically English pub. We had drinks at the traditionally English bar, then progressed to the dining room for dinner. This was the first of our eatathon days while we were in England. One new kilo has appeared very quickly.
No jet lag has been a blessing. Sally has remarked a couple of times on how well we seem to have travelled.
Day 2 18 Sep Sun New Forest, Lymington, Keyhaven, Hurst Castle, Beaulieu, New Forest
We started the day with Barry’s special yummy scrambled eggs. This was closely followed with muffins and Sally’s home made blackberry jam. The blackberries come from the bushes along the roads in New Forest, including outside their cottage.
We set out for Lymington. On the way we encountered a triathalon and had to wait for a pack of horses to cross the road while driving through New Forest. In one of the little villages, there were a couple of donkeys wandering through the street. One took a particular liking to Dave trying to get his head into the back seat alongside Dave.
When we got to Lymington, we walked through town and to the harbour .The streets are quite lovely with planter boxes everywhere and lovely cake shops with bay windows displaying their wares. Along the way we savoured an icecream made with clotted cream. This was quite a weird sensation as the melted clotted cream lines the ceiling of your palette. Sally pointed out the Old Guys Rule Shop so we absolutely had to make a t-shirt purchase given we had a 59 ¾ person in our midst. We found a fitting one with an old guy driving a boat.
As we were leaving Lymington it started to rain slightly. Hmm, doesn’t look like we will get that late Indian summer after all.
We drove to the Spyglass Inn at Keyhaven for lunch. We were waiting to see if the rain would abate. before walking to Hurst Castle. We had Ploughman’s platters which had lots of cheese and trout. The sun soon appeared so we thought we had a good chance of doing the walk to Hurst Castle without getting wet.
The walk to Hurst is about 1.5 miles on loose pebbled ground. This was a good work out as the pebbled ground is like walking on soft beach sand, with each foot step sinking into the pebbles. We found some new heart shaped pebbles for Sally’s collection. The wind was quite strong and there were spectacular views of a big storm hanging over Keyhaven as we continued our trek. We were able to see forward to the lighthouse and Hurst Castle and across the water to the Isle of Wight in the distance. Luckily, we made it all the way to the castle without getting wet.
Hurst Castle is a fortress for protecting against sea invaders. It has been extended over the years. It now houses some museum rooms, but the public can also climb over most parts of the castle and discover its history. Thecastle also houses the Lighthouse Association. On display are huge guns and shells and lots of lighthouse lenses. After an hour or so meandering through the castle we caught the tiny ferry back to Keyhaven. Its maximum load is ten people so one of the passengers could only come on if he was classified as “crew”.
On the way back to New Forest, we stopped to refuel (us not the car) at Monty’s Bar at the Montague Hotel in Beaulieu (pronounced Bewly! – obviously an English rather than French pronunciation).
For dinner at home that night, Barry cooked boned lamb on the BBQ and Sally made cheese bread, sliced courgettes and vegetables. This was followed by lemon drizzle cake and crème fraiche. What a delicious meal. We are being spoilt.
Day 3 19 Sep Mon New Forest, Corfe Castle, Old Harry’s Rocks, Studland, Sandbanks, New Forest
Today’s main activity was to drive to Corfe Castle which are castle ruins on top of a good vantage point on a hill. The castle was interesting to walk up to, walk around and all the scenery is very picturesque both in terms of the ruins and the surrounding farmland and village scenery
We walked through Corfe village enjoying the occasional tourist shop but mostly looking at the village buildings. Rather than eat at a pub, we decided to buy sandwiches and yummy sausage rolls and chicken tikka pasties for our upcoming walk to the next scenic spot. The hot food couldn’t wait for the short drive and we devoured it as we walked back down the hill from the castle.
We then walked 1.5 miles to Old Harry’s Rocks through a small village, some fields and along a cliff side which warned people to keep a reign on their dogs as several had been lost over the cliff edge. One thing we had noticed since being in New Forest was the abundance of dogs that are taken everywhere by their owners – into the pubs, into shopping centres, and as would be expected for walks in the country side. The cliffs and rocks were spectacular. We ate our sandwich at the rocks taking in the beautiful scenery and being careful to stay away from the edge of the cliffs. A passing lady found a four leaf clover very close to us.
On the walk back, we looked for our own four leaf clover to no avail. So instead, we stopped at the Bankes Arms in Studland to enjoy a beer outside at the sidewalk tables. On the way back to the car, we spotted the elusive deer grazing at the road side.
For a change in scenery, we took a route back to New Forest via the Chain Ferry at Sandbanks. The chain ferry provided us with entertainment as well as being the practical way to get across the water. It takes about 40 cars at a time in four lanes. Only a bit of jostling occurs to get a good spot. We just missed one crossing as a pushy bus decided it had right of way over us. Oh, well it meant we were first on to the next crossing fifteen minutes later. First on, however, is not first off. We had to wait for the right hand lanes to exit first. Sandbanks is a very popular and upmarket residential area because it has water views on both sides of the spit. We drove past the mansions in awe
Grandma had sent us some money to enjoy our time together with Barry and Sally and also for Dave’s birthday. We had a very special dinner at Hotel Terravina a short drive from the cottage. Terravina has a famous sommelier who is touted as the best in England? The food and service were both fantastic.
Pam fell asleep as soon as hit the road on the way back from the restaurant and didn’t wake until we arrived back at the cottage. Maybe the jet lag had caught up at last?
Day 4 20 Sep Tues New Forest, Winchester, Wimbledon
In the morning we awoke to the view of horses and sheep which appear like clock-work in the fields each day. Barry had seen 2 horses eating hedges at front of house at 2am, but these had been an elusive experience during daylight hours.
Pam had wanted to buy a new camera before we left Australia but we had run out of time to research properly. Sally’s camera looked great, so Sally researched if we could buy one before heading off to France. Amazingly, there was one available in Winchester which is where we were heading four sightseeing today. We successfully purchased the camera and tried it out straight away at Winchester cathedral.
We spent several hours in this amazing place including going down to see the crypt. Although we had also been here in 2005, I saw lots of different things than on that first visit. One such thing was the viewing of the old bibles and world globes. An attendant explained the process they had used to write and illustrate the pages of the bibles including some amazing calculations to determine what chapters and words would appear on what pages so they could create multiple pages simultaneously and all with no calculators let alone computers.
After the cathedral, we walked through the old city and along the old wall aside the waterway. We enjoyed a light lunch at a café. Dave and I went to the Winchester Mill while Barry and Sally had coffee and cake. The Mill is a working water mill, and includes a demo of flour grinding. Afterwards, we all walked through town and viewed some interesting clocks to add to Dave’s photo collection.
It was now late afternoon, so time to head on to Wimbledon. Unfortunately without being to avoid peak hour traffic..
Once we had dropped our bags inside Barry and Sally’s flat, we walked through the old Wimbledon village then across the Wimbledon commons to two pubs which are side by side amongst the houses. We stopped at the Hand fin Hand for drinks, and sat outside under the grape vines.
We then headed back to the flat to await Steve’s arrival which was anticipated in the next 30 minutes or so. Barry and Sally stayed home as they were going back to work the next morning. Dave, Steve and Pam walked back to Wimbledon village to the local Indian restaurant. We enjoyed good food and wine, albeit encountering an inexperienced waiter and some differences to Oz Indian dining, eg paying for the starting pappadums and having to specify how many we wanted. Poor Steve had to travel back to Finchley in middle of night – 1.5 hours and arrived about 1:30am.

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