Tribby's Travels - Back to the New Forest

As we're having such gorgeous weekend weather at the moment we decided to have one last Tribby sleepover before we pack everything away and put Tribby to sleep for the winter, although we might use Tribby for a few bike rides - including one which is coming up this weekend.

As you know from previous Tribby's Travels and other posts we absolutely love being on the New Forest.   It's only a couple of hours drive from home and just about on the limits for Archie the dog's travel sickness.   Unfortunately I can't actually tell you where we stayed as it's top secret.

This year we bought the BritStops book again, as well as signing up for the Caravan & Camping Club.  To be honest BritStops hasn't really been worth the money as this weekend is the first time we've used it and it cost us a fortune at the place we stayed as we couldn't resist buying produce.   Anyway, so all I can tell you is that the place we stayed is number 105 in the book.  
The whole point of BritStops is somewhere to park up overnight which is safe and secure, either in a pub car park, farm shop and various other places which the publishers of the book Mandy and Steve Clarke have negotiated with the owners.   You're not obliged to buy anything in return, although sometimes it is very difficult not to.  This time (without giving away any information whatsoever as to the location) we bought food and alcohol, had a ploughman's lunch and Brunch the following morning.  All we had to pay for at the "site" was £2 for electric hook up.

The whole secrecy thing is that most of the "sites" have limited spaces, in this case 2, so if a non Britstopper tried to use the site it would take away a space from someone who had bothered to spend £30 on the book.

After we'd eaten our lunch on Saturday I sat down to read some of my latest kindle book and Shaun was pottering about and playing with Archie.  Unfortunately the effects of some cider I consumed happened soon after sitting down - while I slept Shaun went off for a wander through the forest with Archie.   I had every intention of going with him, or even meeting him in the village for a spot of shopping but that never happened.   We had a very lazy afternoon and after dinner and last dog walk I made up the bed and snuggled under the duvet and watched a DVD.  There was a lovely sunset

The next morning when we eventually woke up was chilly and misty, while I was putting the bed away Shaun took off over the Forest again with Archie - I missed my chance again!

Giant spiderwebs

I never did get my walk or shopping, once we'd had brunch it was time to pack up and head home.   We had what can only be described as a very lazy weekend, which I suppose is exactly what you need sometimes.

As I said at the top, we're not putting Tribby totally to bed just yet.   We've got a sportive to do on Sunday (Indian Summer permitting) and another at the end of October (Pedal in Preston Park).  It's quite possible we'll have to sleep in the campervan over Christmas too, after which Tribby will be going into "storage" at the in-laws whilst we travel round Australia in January.   Hopefully Shaun's shift pattern will allow us a few more trips next summer, we really haven't had enough this year !!!!!

The New Forest - A Different View

Way back in February this year Shaun and I spent a weekend in London - mainly to visit the London Bike Show.   One of the first exhibitors we visited was the New Forest, which was actually part of the Travel Show section of the exhibition.   We were persuaded to enter a prize draw for an "adventure break" in the New Forest, all we had to do was put an email address on a card and post it in a box - simples.    We must have filled in 15 to 20 similar cards and thought nothing of it, not even when the contact emails started to roll in a couple of weeks later.

Jump forward to June 2nd and in my Inbox was a simple email 

Dear Lesley

I am delighted to inform you that you have won our prize draw of a fantastic New Forest Activity Break!

Further details on claiming your prize will be sent within the week we were just so excited to let you know you have won as soon as possible.

Best wishes

Natasha

Natasha Davies

Employment & Tourism Communications Assistant

New Forest District Council, Appletree Court, Lyndhurst SO43 7PA

My initial reaction was one of disbelief - we've won the occasional prize but a whole break?  Nope that had never happened.   Then when it had actually sunk in it was a mad flurry of activity trying to work out how we were going to fit in a few days away.   Luckily we already had holiday booked for July so I asked if we could possibly tack it on to the end.  At that point we didn't know what the actual prize was.   Natasha promised to try and organise the break beginning on Thursday 17th.   The hotel, Careys Manor Hotel & Senspa was booked for 2 nights bed & breakfast for 4 people. 4?  Who to take?  At such short notice it was difficult to arrange so we decided to go it alone.   Whilst we were away we heard from Natasha that our itinerary was to be as follows :-

B&B at Careys Manor Hotel & Senspa arriving 16^th July for 2 nights

Presentation by the Destination Partnership 

Champagne dinner with a sail on the Solent on the 16^th July

On Friday 17th a 2 town guided tour, lunch and cycling and kayaking

Wow - lots to fit in over 2 days!  

We arrived in Brockenhurst early so headed to the Rose & Crown for lunch - one of the best fish finger sandwiches I've ever had!

When we got to Careys Manor we were given a guided tour of the Hotel and taken to our room which had a lovely garden view.

Once we had dropped our bags off we headed back to reception to meet representatives from Escape Yachting  and More Than a Tour.  

A few photographs were taken and a chat about what we would be doing over the next day or so and then we were driven down to Lymington to join our yacht for the afternoon.  We were introduced to our skipper - David who took us and the rest of the group down to the Omerta - our yacht.   Quick briefing and donning of life jackets and we were soon out on the Solent.  It wasn't an overly windy day so the water was lovely and calm, perfect weather - which was great as I was really apprehensive about the whole thing not being a lover of anything boat related!   Champagne was served as we headed towards the Needles.  

Coloured Sands at Alum Bay

The Needles

I'm sure the rocks are smaller than I remember!

Once we'd passed the Needles David and Raphael began to prepare the Omerta for our dinner stop in Alum Bay.   

Food and wine was served - Loch Fyne kiln roasted salmon with lemon and parmesan Linguine followed by warm Treacle Tart with clotted cream washed down with a bottle of Rose.   

The group settle down for dinner (photo taken by Luke Crofts)

(photo taken by Luke Crofts)

The sunset was impressive.  

Lymington Marina (photo taken by Luke Crofts)

An amazing evening, one which I never thought I'd get the chance to experience but I'm glad we did it ............ and the weather was pretty much perfect (apart from the thunderstorm which chased us back to Lymington!)  The trip was also made special by having a great group who interacted, especially Louise and Luke who took some fantastic photos (credited) and were great company.

Paul & Simon from More Than A Tour were waiting for us at the marina ready to take us back to the hotel and run briefly through the itinerary for Friday.  They arranged to pick us up at 10am and take us back to Lymington for an historical tour as we'd mentioned that we'd never been to Lymington before.

Up for breakfast and back to Reception to wait for our pick up.   First stop was the St Barbe Museum which was extremely interesting, especially the art exhibition, and then Simon told us about some of the history of the town as we walked down the streets.  We got to see the gold painted post box celebrating Ben Ainslie's 2012 Olympic gold medals - open the link to see the local story!   

Stop off for lunch at The Kings Head

and then drive back to Brockenhurst to collect our bikes from Cyclexperience  and cycle across the Forest to Bucklers Hard for our kayaking experience.

Sorry no photos from the kayaking but I did manage to get some photos of Bucklers Hard.  

Our instructor and guide Tom   from New Forest Activities got us all kitted out so we looked like proper kayakers (all the gear and no idea!) and gave us some quick instruction on how to manoeuvre and then got us into our kayaks.  He took us upstream first so that coming back was easier (tide going out!) It was a very relaxing 2 hours, chatting about the Forest and the river - a great way to put the world to rights too!   After our paddle up the Beaulieu River a taxi was waiting to take us back to the Hotel.   

On Friday night we walked up to the Snakecatcher and had the most amazing Venison steak cooked on a hot stone - thoroughly recommended.

Saturday morning saw the end of our amazing experience and time to leave for home.  One last chance to enjoy a delicious breakfast in the Cambium at Careys Manor.  We'd have loved to be able to spend some time using the hotel facilities, the Spa looked amazing - hopefully Shaun will treat us one day!

We had such an amazing time and we can't wait to go back.   Seeing the Forest from a different perspective, taking part in activities we'd never normally do, was fantastic.   We've visited the Forest many times, with Danni when she was smaller and walking holidays with the dog and have fallen in love with the area.   We'll definitely be back!

Thanks to everyone involved for your hospitality - we've had a ball!

Tribby's Travels - the New Forest

We've just had a lovely week off work and spent some of it in the New Forest.

On Saturday we went to the wedding of Shaun's nephew, Phil, to Emily.  

It was a lovely day - I love getting dressed up, even though I'd had a fair amount of stress finding the right dress, but eventually I found just what I was looking for.

Mother & daughter 

Daddy's girl

Me & him

Don't we scrub up nice?

On Sunday we packed up Tribby and headed to my parents to pick up the dog and start our few days away.  Our first destination and one night stopover was the lovely Beverley Farm at Medstead.   We got a great welcome from the owner Andy who showed us around this small site.  We were the only unit staying that night so we had a lovely field all to ourselves with electric hook up, and three rams in a neighbouring field.  

Hook up at Beverley Farm is a little different to most we've found - at this site you pay for what you use!  We gave Andy £2 for our overnight and the next morning just before we left Andy came down and told us we'd only used 90p worth!   Apart from the hook up, water & CDP there are no facilities so it's only suitable for motorhomes and caravans & there are only a couple of pitches.   Unfortunately we didn't have much time to explore apart from a couple of walks with the dog.  We will be back to Beverley Farm in the future for a weekend stay and explore a bit more as it's only an hour or so from home!

On Monday morning we carried on down to Sway, on the New Forest.   Rushcroft Farm is another lovely site, small with hook up (charged at £2 per night), Water, CDP, washing up facilities and two toilets and two showers.   When we were there there were only half a dozen units staying so it was very quiet, although there are quite a few pitches.

The thing I loved about this site was the railway which was a short walk away (and the only drawback to the site too as the farm backs on to the track so it was a bit noisy - but you got used to that after a while).  On Tuesday we decided to go into Brockenhurst by train.   Sway train station means that you can practically go anywhere on the Forest and beyond so there is no need to move the campervan if you want to go out for the day- no worries about parking, car park charges or traffic!  We had a lovely day walking round the shops and walking Archie on the Forest.

Brockenhurst - The Splash

Archie loved running around - especially through the poo!

On Wednesday we decided to stay local and walked around the Setthorns Inclosure (which is mainly used for camping but has some lovely trails to walk and cycle).  

It was a lovely walk and we saw a deer

On the way back we popped into the Hare & Hounds for lunch and a well earned cider!

Archie loves a pub chip!

On Thursday we headed home - we will be back to the New Forest next year.   It's the ideal distance from home for a long weekend and is ideal for dog walking.  We also need to come back with the bikes!   I think that's it now for Tribby until next year when we've got quite a few trips planned already!

Saturday saw the pass through Newhaven of the Tour of Britain.  Shaun headed into Brighton to see the finish and I stayed at home - mainly because I'd agreed to bake cakes and help with teas and coffees at our local park.   It was great to see the town turn out to support!

What's next?   Next weekend is the Color Run in memory of Sam and it looks as though I've signed up to do the Brighton 2 Brighton Cyclosportive the following weekend!   Watch this space for more news!