Claire and I took a couple of days off and headed to the New Forest for a bit of rest and relaxation and a bit of exercise. The last time we went, we came to the conclusion it's definately the place to take your bicycles, so that's what we did.

We headed down mid-morning on Friday to get a pitch on the Hollands Wood site, just outside Brockenhurst. Unfortunately, they only take reservations for 3 nights or more, so getting there early ensured we got a spot. This is the same site we stayed at last time, and actually had our pitch about 20 meters from where we were last time. It didn't take us long to get everything setup.

We milled around for the rest of Friday and popped into Brockenhurst for some supplies and lunch.

Saturday was exercise day. After a leisurely rise, we headed off on our bikes on one of the routes in the guide we bought a while back. This was a lovely ride that took us from Brockenhurst, through the woods to Beaulieu, back up to the edge of Lyndhurst and back down to Brockenhurst. Whilst mostly flat, there were a couple of stinker hills, but thankfully, they were on tar roads. About 5 hours later, we made it back to the camp with a total of 45km (~28 miles) under our belts and 2 pairs of very tired legs.

This was a fantastic ride, with loads of pretty scenery - I didn't take too many pictures as there is a limit to the number of pictures of trees one can take. It's also a bit of a pain having to stop every time to take a picture.

Thief!! Wanted Dead or Alive
That evening, whilst relaxing by the tent, we had a visit from one of the many horses that mozy about the area. This horse however had a purpose - food. I was in the tent at the time, when the horse stuck his head in, somehow managed to locate the packet containing the shopping we'd just bought (it was out of the way), grab hold of the bag and back out of the tent. Now these are big animals and wild too, so I wasn't going to stop it either.

Once outside the tent, it shook the bag until the sealed loaf of brown bread dropped out, and then proceeded to tear open the bag and eat each and every single slice of bread, lick it's lips and walk off leaving the empty bag just lying there. No thanks or anything. How rude!!!

We were quite stunned to say the least, and to make matters worse, the horse didn't bother anyone else. Just us. How on earth did it know we had a nice new loaf of bread?

Sunday was just the usual pack up and head home stuff. We did consider another ride, but our bottoms were still a little saddle sore, so decided against it. All in all, we had a lovely weekend and I really recommend taking bicycles to the New Forest.

Oh yes, and the few pictures I took are in my gallery.