The Horses of New Forest just wander around
by cindy ~ July 10th, 2009. Filed under: wwwTrek.
It was after 5pm that we finally made our way into new Forest, Holmsley, after a beautiful drive through some awesome countryside. No one was at the front office/shop, so we made our way around the caravan park looking for a camping pitch.
It was pretty full this time of year. Campers & caravaners everywhere. Most of the powered sites were taken, so we picked the best spot we could & started to set up camp. One of the camping rules was that campers be positioned 6 meters apart, so we had to make sure that there was sufficient room between us & other campers. Not an easy task as most campers didn’t take new campers into account when setting up their power supply & area. Each powerpole had 2 outlets, however most campers decided that they would use both power outlets. So short of disconnecting them, we had to make do with what we could.
As Paul was laying out the tent I was unloading the car & taking video (see attached video). The going was tough when putting in the tent pegs, as the ground was quite solid. Paul bent many pegs getting them in. The tent went up easy, and by nightfall we were all up. We had left over pizza from lunch, so that made an easy dinner for that night.
After the last drama blowing up the air mattresses, we decided that we needed a pump that actually fit. We had picked one up in Brighton that day, so we didn’t die like we had the night before blowing them up.
We tried to get our mobile broadband working, but no such luck. No signal. The night after that was spent sorting through photos & getting an early night.
The next morning we noticed the campers opposite us packing up. They had a better position than us so we decided that we wanted that spot. We sat around eating dry cornflakes & repacking until the happy campers had left. After moving our stuff over under the tree (it kept threatening to rain), we decided that rather pull the tent down, we would just unpeg the tent & drag it over.
The tent dragged over quite well, however we did lose some structural integrity in the result. Nothing that good placement of boxes & bags didn’t fix! Once we were all settled, it was time to sit back & chill for the day. I hadn’t stopped since getting to the UK, so I was starting to feel a little weary. So taking a day to collect ourselves & just have a chill was a GREAT idea!
We tried to setup the Vodafone prepaid on my HTC today, but no such luck. Because my credit card was registered in Australia, they didn’t let me use it to charge my SIM. I was told that I had to physically go into a Vodafone carrier & buy it. So another day on roaming rates… OUCH!
As we expected, there would be no Internet access at the camp site. As we left the confines of the site we gained some connectivity, enough to answer emails & do a couple of graphics, but it was pretty limited. I’ve found up to this point that net access was pretty predictable in its locations.
Tonight was my first go at cooking on this trip, so I was hoping that Paul wasn’t going to be killed off by it! Quesedillas was on the menu, and it’s the first time that Paul had them. While a little hot for his pallet (the chilli), it wouldn’t have been as bad if he hadn’t drunk water with it. Ever good chilli eater knows…. no H20 with chilli! It floats the heat. But he enjoyed it, and who wouldn’t! Quesedillas rock!
Paul cleaned up & it was sit back & chill some more. I had filled my pocket drive with a HUGE selection of TV series & movies to entertain us, so tonight was Sons of Anarchy night. I love that series & Paul hadn’t seen it before. Then it was time for sleep as we were hitting the touring trail tomorrow.
Day 2 at New Forest & we were off! The first thing we noticed as we left the campsite was the beautiful New Forest horses milling around the entrance. Not only the entrance, but as we ventured further out they were laying on the road, standing around on the road, laying on the verge with their head on road, just generally milling & laying all over the place. Cars respectfully took care when manouvering around them. It was pretty awesome to see wild horses so comfortable within their surroundings in a heavy utilized area by humans.
After we said goodbye to the horses, it was time to see if we could get some Net access. A few kilometers down the road we struck it rich, net access. However, it was short lived. But I kept trying & gradually got enough signal on the journey into civilization to check my email.
First stop was Sainsbury’s to get my Vodafone charged up. While we were there we picked up a few the rain was back again today, definitely NOT to my pleasure. But I could sit around & get pissed about it, or sucked it up & go have some fun in it. So we were off to have some outdoor walkabouts.
Originally we were setting off in search of a castle, but our mistress ‘the satnav’ decided to it couldn’t find it, so the next thing we found was a Friars Beach. Here I found it really was true that UK beaches were full of rocks. Well not exactly rocks, but pebble like rocks. Still, it was unusual seeing a beach that wasn’t filled with white sand.
Here was the first place I saw what is a common sight at UK beaches. Beach Huts. They are rare in Australia, pretty much only inhabiting Sydney & Melbourne beaches. However, in the UK they are everywhere. The procession of beach huts at Friar Beach went on for a long stretch of beach.
We went for a nice walk along the beach pathway in front of the huts. It was also a good opportunity to see what kind of things people stow away in these huts. I was quite surprised to see that many deck them out with crockery, books, outdoor furniture, etc. I did however, wonder how they maintained the huts. Still none the wiser!
