The Legend and I recently took a cheeky trip to the New Forest. We arrived around lunchtime and cycled from Burley to a cafe on the old railway. Lunch was had and then a cycle back to the car. Because it was warm and we were dehydrated we chose to make an emergency coffee next to the car park using our emergency coffee kit. It was lovely. The weather was sunny and I might have had my head exposed which wasn’t great and necessitaed buying after sun later on.
That evening we stayed at a hotel in Highcliff, which is at the top of a cliff, that isn’t really that high but compared to a not-cliff I guess it is. We had a picnic dinner on the beach while looking out across the sea to the Isle Of Wight. We definitely had some cocktails because we were away and staying in a lovely area of the country.
The next day we had a reasonable English breakfast, although the bacon was so thin light was interferring with itself as it passed through the meat. The rest of it was good and the coffee, made with fresh beans, was much much better than the instant crap that was in the room. Our bikes had been stored in the hotel storage space so we knew they were safe.
After breakfast we drove to a New Forest car park and then cycled to Brockenhurst via the rest of the disused railway line. This route was new for me but it made better sense to the Legend because it linked up two parts of an overall route. This means next time we head down that way we can do a longer route and enjoy the countryside more. Drinks were had at a little cafe in Brockenhurst and we looked at the ford, but the water was so low there was no ford! Upon our return to the car we loaded up the bikes and headed home.
Both journeys were fortunately uneventful and although we hadn’t spent long in the New Forest it was lovely to get away and enjoy somewhere else. Now it’s time to look for disused railways and the such around our local area.
