23 August 2019 (Friday) - Off to the New Forest



Having farmed out two dogs I had been hoping for a good night. However Treacle expanded to take the bed space of three dogs.
Over brekkie I sent out some birthday wishes, then woke everyone else up. With the last of the packing done we set off on our holiday.

What with glorious weather forecast, the police had been warning of five million more cars than usual being on the roads today, so we thought that an early start to beat the masses might be in order. We left home shortly after six o’clock, and made very good time. So much so that even stopping at Fleet services for a tiddle (that took half an hour) we got to our destination in two and a half hours.
As we drove we were messaging Karl and Tracey to say where we were. However messages as to where they were weren’t forthcoming. I would say where we were, and get a reply of “OK”, or “Excellent”. Were they ahead of us or behind? It turned out that they’d come down last night, but having made incredibly good time we got to where we’d arranged to meet ten minutes ahead of them.
I didn’t gloat much.

We started our little holiday with a walk round Linford Bottom. The woods there were rather beautiful. The dogs spuddled in the rivers and streams, the humans hunted for little Tupperware boxes. A rather good walk. We then relocated to the Elm Tree where we had a sandwich and a pint or two (three) of their rather good Elm Tree ale. Hic!

Suitably replete we went shopping. First of all to the Ringwood brewery for supplies. I took a selfie there and posted it to Facebook. It got over twenty “likes”; including one from the brewery itself.
From there we went into Ringwood. Charlotte and I had been detailed to walk the dogs to some local geocaches whilst everyone else went to Sainsbury’s. We walked the dogs to one geocache, then walked the dogs to the café where we had a pineapple and grapefruit smoothie each, then walked the dogs on to the ice cream stall for ice creams.
I slept all the way back to our holiday cottage in Redlynch.

We got to our cottage; it was rather grand. We unpacked and explored. But time was running away from us. A quick change, and we went over the road to the Kings’ Head. A couple of pints, a rather good dinner, then back to base. We got out the Blockus, and spent a rather good hour wantonly trying to ensure that everyone else lost. Have you ever played Blokus? It’s not enough to win; everyone else must lose.

I took a few photos today… I’m hoping I’ll sleep well…

No comments:

Post a Comment