Bank Holiday weekend saw us in Holmsley in the New Forest. Bikes off the van and a couple of cycle rides between the showers. Last Sunday saw an unusual orange orb in the sky so it was walking boots on. The sun belied the cold but having ushered away the polar bears huddled together outside the van for warmth we strode out for Bransgore. It was only 3 miles so on the mainly tarmac route we selected we arrived in 45 minutes. A Sunday lunchtime drink fortified us for the journey home. Our walking map suggested a new path back but it had disappeared so we went back to the road. However, another road beckoned us and a few hundred metres ahead, another couple had a map (and compass) in hand so we caught them up.
They were searching for the path marked on their map which seemed to be on our left. Unfortunately there was a padlocked gate barring our way. That was our first clue. But undaunted we clambered our way over the gate and set off down the path. After 10 minutes we reached another dead end. Our new companions pointed to the map. A right turn was the way. This was our second clue. It was blocked by a 5 foot barbed wire fence! It looks like we can slide underneath our new friend suggested. So we did. The path was there, overgrown and increasingly boggy. After a few more minutes the odd couple looked at their compass and decided they would go south east. We thought we wanted to go north east. So we split up and never saw them again. On we went through marshy ground over large streams occasionally finding a path but every time we tried to head in the direction we wanted there was barbed wire. An hour or so later we found a wide path but leading in the wrong direction. We took it and climbed several moe locked gates before reaching a road. We climbed over the last padlocked gate leaving behind us the sign advising trespassers would be shot on sight and chose a left turn. A mile or two further on there was a sign for our site and despite being chased by rampaging cows for the last few hundred metres we were at last home. (Had we turned left instead of right once we reached the road we discovered that in a few hundred metres we would have been back in the pub we started out from - which in retrospect might have been a better bet).
So off to the Isle of Wight on a plush Caravan Club site in Newchurch and to see old friends Deb and Mike and goddaughter Catherine and other siblings, Louise and Isabel. Everywhere was too wet to walk or cycle so we have relied on buses to take us to the Garlic Farm, Carisbrooke Castle where Louise works and Osborne House.
OSBORNE HOUSE
CARISBROOKE CASTLE
OSBORNE HOUSE
The weather has picked up in the last few days so my half trousers have seen the light of day if not my shorts! More news next week perhaps a bit earlier.
love J&P
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