We left Kelly and Ben’s a bundle of excitement as we were going to be spending the first night in our van! We were also pretty excited to be spending that night in the New Forest. Ben and Kelly had given us a good campsite to stay at and as we got there relatively early on Thursday we managed to snag a perfect spot right on the edge of the forest overlooking the field filled with free roaming ponies.
Set up was easy which we were both pretty chuffed about as we had only seen the van set up in action once and neither of us were paying full attention, but within no time we were sitting out in our comfy chairs drinking a bottle of delicious English cider. The weather was still turning it on for us so we got to spend an afternoon/evening outside enjoying extended summer daylight hours.
When we finally did go to bed and converted the couch to the sleeping area we both were hoping that our 1 min test of the bed was accurate and that we were going to a) both fit and b) be comfortable. Well we both fit (just) and it’s pretty comfortable so winning on that front!
After a lazy start the next day we walked into the little village called Brockenhurst towards the bike hire shop as we had researched and found that they sold second hand bikes. We had been looking since we arrived in England for two second hand mountain bikes for us and a task that we thought would be relatively easy was actually proving quite difficult. The private bike sales online seemed ridiculously expensive for what they were and at one stage we were considering purchasing brand new ones instead. But we chanced upon this store and luckily when we walked in they had two bikes ready to ride out. Which is what we did!
That afternoon and the next few days was spent riding around some amazing tracks in the New Forest. Happy days! On one of those rides we managed to see the oldest oak in the New Forest, the Knightwood oak which when you come across it, in comparison to other ancient trees we’ve seen, it didn’t appear remarkably tall or wide, but then we came across another oak that was planted by the Queen in 1975, and its size put everything into perspective!
One of the best things about being back in England are the pubs. It seems in every street corner there is a pub and in London we sampled many of the ales and ciders in those around Notting Hill. In the country side pubs are also prevalent and on any endeavour be it riding or walking you are guaranteed to be able to stop off for a delicious drink to celebrate all your hard work. Some of these pubs may even be during the ride/walk. Needless to say we celebrated our achievements with several ales in some amazing pubs along the way! Kelly and Ben also came for a visit and after a nice walk in the forest we went to the local pub for some delicious lunch.
We loved our stay in the New Forest and with Kelly and Ben being so close, ino doubt we will be back. S
