Beautiful Britain - Cows, Horses & The Knightwood Oak, The New Forest

As well as the days out and about that I've already shared with you, we did quite a bit of driving around during our recent holiday in The New Forest.

Over the course of our two week stay we saw lots of cows and horses roaming the landscape and took far too many pictures to be able to share them all with you, so I've selected some of my favourites.

Starting with the cows ... 

... and then on to the horses ... 

When it came to the landscape of the area, our first impressions were a bit disappointing. What we were seeing, in the main, could only really be described as barren 'scrubland'.

Desperate to find the beauty of The New Forest, that lots of people had told us about, I hit Google and looked for 'the best places to take photos in The New Forest, and came across The Rhinefield & Bolderwood Arboretum Ornamental Drives, which sounded like they might just hit the spot.

We spent a very pleasant afternoon exploring the Drives, which gave us the real feeling of being in 'The Forest', which looked beautiful, with the sun shining through the canopy.

It also gave us chance to visit The Knightwood Oak, which is the New Forest's most famous tree. It is thought to be one of the oldest, with age estimates ranging from 450 to 600 years old. The girth of the trunk close to ground level is just over seven metres!

So that, my lovely people, is the last of my posts from The New Forest. Overall we had a lovely holiday. There are some lovely places to visit and, if the weather is good and you like getting out and about it is definitely worth a visit.

Would we go back? I'm not sure, but we will definitely be booking a holiday to the Isle of Wight, probably next year as we absolutely loved what we managed to see on our day trip.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about our visit to The New Forest ... we did manage a quick pitstop at Stonehenge on our way home, but I'll tell you what we thought about that over the next week or so.

Beautiful Britain - Hurst Castle, The New Forest

This is the last but one post from our October holiday in The New Forest. This was our last big day out and the plan was for a mooch round Milford-on-Sea, with maybe a wander along the prom to take some photos of the beach huts.

Safe to say ... things did not quite go to plan. I don't quite know how it happened but we ended up yomping the mile and a half along the spit to the castle. It was seriously heavy going, with shingle all the way and a mega wind blowing an absolute hooley.
We started out thinking we'd just go a little way, take a few photos and see how we got on. 
Very strangely for us, we ended up getting a bit over enthusiastic and, before we knew it, even though it was really daunting, we had gone too far to go back.
The views across to the Isle of Wight and The Needles from the spit were amazing and we spent a good while lingering, watching the progress of this big ship making its way through The Solent.
Once at the castle there was no way we were going back without a look round and, even though it was English Heritage, which meant we had to pay (being members of the opposition), we paid a visit.

First stop was the tea room, where we got our breath back and warmed up before heading out to explore.

I have to say that this is one of the biggest and most interesting castles we have ever come across.

It is a bit of a mash up having originally been built by Henry VIII as one of a chain of coastal fortresses and was completed in 1544. It was modernised during the Napoleonic wars and again in the 1870s, when the enormous armoured wings were added. Alterations were also made during both WW1 and WW2.

There is also a really interesting exhibition showing the history and workings of Trinity House, which was was of the first things that we had a look at.
It was then up top where views in all directions are amazing and we could get a real good look at how far we'd walked.
One of our favourite things about the castle was the WW2 Garrison Theatre. Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will know that I am working my way through Martin's grandad's WW1 diaries and telling his story here on Life of Pottering. At the moment we are at a point in his story when he is hospitalised and we have a number of concert playlists that he was involved in whilst in hospital. We couldn't help but wonder if this theatre was anything like the one that his productions would have been held in back in Italy in WW1.
We spent a good couple of hours exploring, before bracing ourselves for the walk back.

Our walk back took considerably longer than our walk out had. It was seriously heavy going and with creaking joints and aching legs we both struggled.

About two thirds of the way back the sun broke through the clouds and we both stopped to do a double take, it was like a light had been turned on. All of the colours instantly became more vibrant, the blues more blue and greens more green, it was just spectacular and not something that we could really catch on film, but here are our efforts.

One last effort got us back to the car ...
... but not before having a chuckle at someone who had got stuck driving over and ended up having to be towed by the tractor.
We felt quite accomplished, having made the effort to walk over and back, it's a castle most definitely worthy of a visit, but one hell of an effort to do so if you do it the way we did.

There is an easier option. A ferry runs every 20 minutes from Keyhaven, where there is plenty of parking to leave the car. I think it's safe to say if ever we visited again we would probably take that option.

Beautiful Britain - Beaulieu & Hythe, The New Forest

Early on in our holiday in The New Forest we had been on a rainy day drive, working out which places we would like to visit properly when the weather picked up.  Beaulieu and Hythe were both on the agenda.

We decided to make the most of a bright sunny day and we started out in Beaulieu. Of course, the big draw for Beaulieu for most would be the National Motor Museum, Abbey and Palace House. We had already decided that this wasn't for us and were happy to have a wander around the village, which looked really pretty.

Parking in the village is very limited, with just one small car park, and it took several drives around before we managed to find a parking space.

These absolute cuties were pretty much one of the first things we saw on our visit, as they were hanging around on the car park. It certainly wasn't the last that we saw of them.

From the car park we followed our new found friends back to the main road, where there were plenty of tantalising glimpses of the Palace to be seen across the lake.
We headed right and made our way along the road, walking through the village, past the back entrance to the museum, and up to the church, where we could catch more sneaky peaks of what lie just the other side of the hedge.
Opposite the church is another beautiful expanse of water and. apart from the sound of the traffic on the road, it felt really peaceful.
We were enjoying the view before being joined by our old friends again,
 This was clearly a favourite lunch spot for them ...
Making our way back along the main road, which can get quite busy, we took a left up the Main Street where we did a bit of mooching about in the few small gift shops that are there.
We spent a lovely hour exploring the village. Aside from the obvious attractions, Beaulieu is a lovely little village. It is full of pretty buildings and cottages, very picturesque and was a really delight. Definitely worth parking up and having a wander if you're in the area.

Just up the road from the village is the Beaulieu Road Sales Yard, which we were also looking forward to having a wander round. It is a sale yard used primarily by 'Commoners', owners of the ponies on The New Forest, to sell their ponies by auction.
Sales are held four times a year and between 150 and 350 New Forest Ponies are up for auction.

The yard was built on the site just after the Second World War and was rebuilt in 2002. It is recognised as one of the safest and most efficient sales yards of its type in the country.

It was fascinating, very quiet today, but it was easy to imagine it bustling with people and ponies on a sale day.
The best views to be had were from the railway bridge back on the road, where there were more donkeys, showing no road sense whatsoever in their quest to find the tastiest treats.
Our last stop for the day was Hythe, a small town near Southampton, along the opposite shore of Southampton Water.

We parked up at the Marina, which is very nice indeed and had a very bracing walk along the coast, with amazing views across the Water to Southampton, where there was one heck of a cruise ship docked.
There were some really good views looking back across to the Hythe Pier and ferry too.
Even on a bright day, the spot is very exposed and it was pretty cold and windy when we visited. Definitely worth a look though.

It's quite close to the town, which is fairly small, with just a few shops and the very unusual pier, where you can catch a train out to the ferry which runs regularly across to Southampton. 
We didn't spend that long in Hythe, but we did manage to find a nice spot for lunch, which is always a winner in my book.
We had a lovely day exploring Beaulieu and a bit farther afield. Highlight of the day had to be the baby donkeys though, they were just too cute.

Beautiful Britain - Staying Local - The New Forest

On the second Tuesday of our two week stay in The New Forest, it was finally time to get the bikes out and see how we got on.

We had a short circular route planned, with an option of extending it to take in The Old Station Tea Rooms at Holmsley if we felt up to it.

It was a nice bright day, but not too warm, so we headed out. No more than 100 yards down the road and my chain fell off. Not the best start, but we were soon back on our way.

Within a couple of minutes of leaving Border Cottage we were off the beaten track and in the heart of the Wilverley Plain and Enclosure.
We haven't really been out on our bikes since our trip along The Cinder Track in Yorkshire, back in May, and it wasn't long before we were having to resort to getting off an pushing as it was a pretty hilly start.

Before long we hit the disused railway line where we met with some horse riders, who told us that the trail was blocked by a fallen tree, but we should be able to get under it on our bikes.As you can see we did manage this and before long we met up with another blockage, this time more of the locals, who weren't moving an inch. Fortunately they seemed friendly enough and we managed to get by pretty uneventfully.
It wasn't long before we came to decision point and we both opted to keep going with the promise of a tea room treat on the cards. This bit of the ride was on a fairly busy main road, downhill all the way, which was great for now, but we would definitely looking for a different way back.

Before we knew it, we had hit the tea rooms and were soon making the most of the Station Master's Croque Monsieur, followed by a fab lemon meringue pie for me, with no soggy bottom in site and no blow torched meringue either, Mary Berry would be impressed. Definitely worth a stop here if you are passing.
A good look at the map and the GPS led us to opt for a different way back, missing out the main road and the long uphill slog. We both greed we'd rather do any hill biking off he beaten track, then at least if we had to resort to walking, we wouldn't be in fear of our lives from the traffic whizzing past.

As it happened, we found a lovely trail back and only a tiny bit of walking was required, with some really pretty spots along the way.
We were soon back on the old railway line and retracing our way, not helping but to wonder where all the intriguing paths off the beaten track would lead.
We passed this humongous caterpillar on our way back and just had to stop for a photo.

Before long we were back at Border Cottage, feeling just a little be achy in the leg department but pretty pleased with our efforts.