New Forest Mini-break - Day #3 - Christchurch and Lyndhurst

So (apologies, a little late), back to our last day of the break, managed to pack up in about one hour flat (after waking up fairly late and enjoying a leasurely breakfast (the camp site doesn't insist you clear the pitch until half twelve, which was nice))...we set the TomTom for central Christchurch (not strictly-speaking actually in the New Forest, but near enough)... ;) After just one tiny mishap (being directed into a car park which was height restricted a little too low for Colin to squeeze into), we managed to find our way to the marina car park (which was rather expensive, but it did mean there were plenty of spaces to choose from, unlike the other car parks in town), and then we walked along the harbour wall into town, and I have to say the whole place is just staggeringly beautiful -

- (might have been the wonderful weather painting things a little artificially sunshiny) but it just seemed everywhere I looked, the whole place was picture perfect -


- walking down the high street was like walking back through time, I think the only mainstream high street store in the entire length of it was a single retro-looking Woolworths -

- all the rest were tiny independent stores (well, and a few charity shops/banks, but that's allowed) -

- I mean, how many tiny towns that you know still have their own little local theatre?

Anyway, we wandered around the farmers market (and did actually discover where the chain stores were, the council seems to have managed to force them all into a little hidden arcade by the multi-storey car park right on the edge of town, amazingly good town planning resulting in probably the only really traditional, largely untouched and truely independent high street in the country (well, that I have ever seen, anyway)! A visit is therefore strongly advised for that spectacle alone... ;)

From there we drove to Lyndhurst in search of some lunch, and found it at the "Fox and Hounds", a "smoke free" pub(!)...where I had a very reasonable Fillet steak (price more reasonable than presentation or flavour (standard pub grub), but I had been rather spoilt for the last couple of days, so not suprising it didn't shine comparitively) -

When we were done we took a walk down the high street, poked around the excellent camping shop in town (but didn't buy anything), and then stumbled upon this little gem -

- a proper, old fashioned sweet shop, hundreds and hundreds of different kinds of sweets, shaming even the largest supermarket with the sheer range, so we stocked up on interesting and retro goodies to give away as novel easter gifts, then back to the camper -

- and home, which took about 2 hours, so an easy hop, considering the massive difference in lifestyle, scenery and culture, a visit to the New Forest (I'll say it again) is like stepping back through time...wonderful... ;)

New Forest Mini-break - Day #2 - Burley and Cider

So back to day two of the mini break (Thursday last week), amazingly the thermal shields kept out the *blazing* sun completely, allowing us to sleep in until 10am (which would *never* happen in a tent)...only real mishap being some of the cushions falling off the end of the bed during the night...need to find some ingenious solution to that, as it's a bit annoying the bed getting shorter and shorter during the night...anyway, it was warm, and quiet and dark right until we wanted it to be otherwise, so a great success...

The weather was staggeringly gorgeous again (what luck!), breakfast was rustled up (bacon sarnie and tea for me, coffee and a toasted cheese scone for Flyingpops) then we zipped up the awning, opened all the curtains, fired up the engine and headed into the New Forest in search of some nice scenery and local wildlife, which we found in abundance -

- we parked Colin up by the side of the (almost deserted) main road -

- and then hiked off towards what appeared (in the distance) to be a promising body of water -

- which even turned out to have a name "Whitten Pond" (accompanied by stark discouragement, should one be contemplating a cooling dip) -

- and there, beyond the wall of gorse flowers, we found some wildlife -

- a small field of New Forest ponies, stopped to drink (and scratch their itchy behinds on the gorse) -

- we stayed and watched them for a while, but they didn't seem inclined to do very much apart from munch continually at the thin grass by the side of the pond, so we walked back to the bus and continued our journey to down the road towards the lovely little village of Burley, this time being slightly outside the tourist season, it didn't seem quite as bad as our last visit, still quite busy though -

- the queue for ice creams was still as long as ever (and this lot wasn't even the hand-made variety) -

- we wandered around the town (which most oddly seems to consist of mostly witchcraft related gift shops, for no other reason than that a white witch lived there for a bit in the 1950s - the locals objected to her presence and she felt compelled to move out - but they seem to be making quite a good living in her wake, ironically ;) -

- then up the road towards the busy little scrumpy cider farm (woo hoo!), found out they do borough market once a week too(!) -

- where I scored a small bottle of "medium" (very nice indeed) -

- then we headed back to the camp site, Flyingpops feeling a bit poorly with a cold, so she had a little sleep in the back of the camper while I played on my PSP, made a start on the *excellent* "Vulcan 607" (about the bombing runs on the Falklands during the little spat we had with Argentina), then back to the gastropub for my lovely steak (as already mentioned) -

- came back full and happy, made a hot water bottle -

- and then drifted off to sleep watching Pirates of the Caribbean on the Shinco -

- a lovely day... ;)

The Three Tuns Inn - New Forest - review

- so, a welcome to the "Three Tuns Inn", unbeknownst to us upon arrival at the aforementioned campsite, to be an "Egon Ronay" recommended "Gastropub", Flyingpops spotted the sign, and thence we were, oh ho(!), looking forward to a real treat -

- the venue was wonderful, very rustic and in keeping with the rural surrounds, unpretentious, dog friendly, and (thankfully) genuinely human friendly too -

- I struggled with the menu (for good reasons), I really wanted the fillet steak, but it was a little on the expensive side, so I went for the fillet burger at a very reasonable £8.95 -

- and (my goodness) did it fullfill my every expectation - not just a burger bun, or even ciabatta - it came served upon a freshly baked crusty herb bread roll (still steaming!), the succulent pink meat topped with drizzled cheddar cheese and a sweet red onion and cranberry relish, a fresh and equally sweet tomato salsa and a slice of crispy bacon tucked down below...each mouthful was a tearful revelation as to what a burger should be...Bravo...it was inevitable, therefore, that on night two, it would be a repeat performance...upon arrival, politely advised that a large table may be arriving soon, we took to our seats 20 minutes or so earlier than the evening before, and this time I opted for the sirloin - the presentation was as immaculate as the evening before, the meat, sweet and succulent again, and quite perfectly cooked, the plate streaked with a balsamic reduction as sweet and sticky as molasses - as we went to pay, I called a waitress over and told her that each time we had come here, the staff had quite literally knocked the ball right out of the park -

- but I beg you, please, don't crowd out my new favourite restaurant, leave me a table somewhere... ;)

Harrow Wood Farm and Caravan Park, New Forest - review

So, the destination of choice for our break for (a rather early) Easter holiday was Harrow Wood Farm in the New Forest, we had read a couple of good reviews and the price was right (almost as importantly), so we thought we would give it a go! Flyingpops got through to them on her second call (after muttering in my direction that "they're most likely all booked up") the lady that answered (the telephone that *exact* second) was extremely friendly, and didn't insist upon a pre-payment of any kind ("Oh you sound like nice folk, I'll trust you")...excellent... ;)

We packed up, as already documented, and zoomed off (following the handy directions of Flyingpops' new TomTom) -

- which speedily got us (under two hours) to the New Forest -

- where we whisked quickly (through the total lack of traffic) to the site-

- which was - no joke - absolutely amazing -

- we checked in and paid at the totally modern reception, were shown on a map exactly which way to go to find our pitch, headed through the (easily 10 foot hedge shielding the site proper from the rest of the farm) -

- and this is what we saw, all completely level, perfect grass, quiet drives, hard standing pitches and zero noise (apart from the singing of the black birds, the bleating of the local billy goats -

- and the flapping of the local pheasants as they hunted down missed goat grub) -

- we parked up Colin, put up the awning (breaking a pole in the act, but bodging it with gaffer tape) -

- enjoyed the perfect peace and quiet for a few hours until sunset -

- put in Colin's thermal window shields (attached with stickers to the glass), it's quilted and silver coated, plus it keeps out 99% of the sunlight in the morning, keeps out most of the ambient noise and stops anyone peeping in...this is the first time we will have ever slept in the camper, so all measures for comfort were essential(!) -

- oh and we discovered that the toilet block on site contains showers with THREE shower heads! One at the top, one to the right and left, awesome! We nicknamed them the "Triple Tornado", although I suspect the pleasure is normally withheld from the able-bodied judging by the size of the stall...(it's the one on the end, if you make it onto site, make sure you give it a go...! ;)

Then we hurried down the extremely short walk to the "Egon Ronay" recommended Gastro pub about 200 yards from the site...but more on that later... ;)

All in all? Absolutely superb...we will definitely be going back...more to follow...just a bit tired now... ;)

Home now...

...pics etc. once we have packed everything away again... ;)

Packed up again...

No more room at the inn, well, none with electric hook up anyway, so today it's off to Christchurch to do some exploring, have a nice pub lunch somewhere, then head home, once the roads have calmed down a bit from the inevitable run to the sun (for the fantastic weather we have been relishing, in peace and quiet with empty roads...Heh... ;) Proper pics later on...

Survived the night!

Thermal shield worked a treat and seemed like plenty of room for sleeping, dinner last night was beyond amazing, real gastro pub, proper pics later! Weather today is totally clear, dry and very warm...really landed on our feet here! ;) Off to try and find some ponies in the forest later...cooked breakfast, hot tea and cold orange juice first though... ;)

Thermal shielding up!

Getting ready for our first night in Colin! Local pub first though for dinner... ;)

Here and pitched... ;)

Just a shame one of the poles on the awning is about one millimeter from breaking off, done my best with the gaffer tape, hope it holds! The site itself is amazing, slap bang in the middle of whe new forest, amazing view and the biggest pitches I have ever seen! The power cable only just stretched! Anyway, off now to stack beer in the fridge... ;)

New Forest - Not seen that many horses...

...since the Grand National! One of the (although certainly not unique) more unusual things about the New Forest is the sheer number of large animals that seem to be oblivious to the fact that there are cars hurtling by, they just ignore roads completely, seemingly treating them as a kind of "area of suprisingly little grass" (or some such horse-thought)...at least 3 of the traffic jams encountered today could be attributed to either equine -

- or bovine -

- related causes...!

The first stop of the day was to the visitors centre and museum (museum saved for a rainy day) which is located in the natural "traffic jam" of Lyndhurst. There are actually *permanent* signs on the roads leading to this (otherwise charming) little town announcing "long delays", and it seems that there is a good reason for this - if you look at this place on a map you will see that, thanks to the limited number of roads in the locale, Lyndhurst falls at a bit of a crossroads making it a perpetual bottleneck...
Good for the resident shop owners, though, as once you get in, you are kind of stuck...(they must do alright too, because the local garages were only selling Ferrari and Maserati cars)...!

Here is a shot down the high street -

- In the visitors centre I obligingly coughed up two quid for a nice large blow-up map of the area in the cunningly placed "entrance shop" only to find a free one 30 seconds later in the "information centre" at the back...doh!

Then a quick visit (before the parking ticket ran out) to both of the two camping shops in town for some essentials (like a tent pole replacement to fix the broken one before the festival season starts for the year) plus a few other "outdoor" things that seemed to have been mislaid in the move, and (accidentally on purpose) skipping the enormous queue all the round way the one way system by shooting up the wrong lane, it was time for lunch...

The venue was the "Green Dragon" in the *tiny* village of Brook. A charming (thatched-cottage-style) place that has had a license to serve intoxicating beverages for over 200 years! -


- I went for one of the specials, an absolutely melt in the mouth shoulder of lamb which slightly unfortunately arrived sat in a rather unexciting mint jus. It was accompanied by one of the worst, overcooked selections of veg I have ever had the unpleasant opportunity to poke with a fork, and the roast spuds were nothing better than average, a *bit* on the crunchy side, but *no* way near fluffy inside (I only ate two of them) -

- oh and also (and this is funny because I predicted this exact eventuality about 5 minutes before it happend), Flyingpops' Brie Baguette turned up with bacon all over it, so that was sent back to the kitchen. It flew back in *just* about the amount of time it *might* have taken to make a new one (well, *almost* anyway)... ;)

From here we moved on to inspect the interestingly moniker'ed (is that a word?) "Sandy Balls" campsite (God only knows what made them pick that name) for the site of a possible later-in-the-year break (which I really wish we were taking now!). Take a look with me down the "high street" onsite, it's actually more like a little village than a campsite! -

- Let me leave you in no doubt that this place is certainly facility rich - there is a pub, an italian resturant, a SPAR supermarket (bit overpriced) at least one swimming pool (but there might be one indoor and one outdoor, we didn't check specifically, but the aerial photo seemed to hint at it)...plus cycle hire, and obviously loads of organised kids entertainment...

Interestingly, the place was *absolutely* packed out, even this early in the season and to be quite honest, I felt a bit put off by that, as *quite* what it is going to be like later in the year when the weather improves, I just don't know -

- Oh and I'm not exactly jumping up and down at the thought of volutarily pitching the tent on a spot of land absolutely *covered* in stones either (ouch!), each of the pitches seems to be deliberately made up of shingle! Now, I don't know about you, but I normally have at least a half-hearted go at getting *rid* of all the stones from where I am planning to pitch my tent, *not* trying to find the greatest concentration possible before settling down! Very strange for a bunch of so called "professionals" in the field of camping... -

- All in all though, it did look like a reasonably nice place perhaps for a weekend away (if not ideal for a full blown camping holiday)...

That done, some "interesting" little roads took us to where the day finished off - in Burley (a *total* tourist trap) where this mother and foal has decided to hang out in the car park for some odd reason (actually, it might have been all the hay that *somehow* ended up there (wonder if they shoo away the not-so-photogenic ones each morning? Ok, sorry, getting a bit cynical there!)) -

- and there was one other fringe benefit of the stop over (*slurp*) -

- only really a tiny shop, no tour, or demonstrations or anything like that (apart from the "on request" bottling demonstration, of course)....so not really a patch on the Cornish Cyder Farm experience...but hey, the "Cyder" they put out from there tastes rather like it belongs in the toilet (*before* human-digestive-processing) and this New Forest stuff is rather nice actually...so "Cheers"...and now I am off to bed...nite... ;)