The New Forest: Day One

Bank Holiday weekend camping trip to the New Forest with Dave.

We set off nice and early but unfortunately every campsite in the New Forest was fully booked up by the time we arrived. Luckily, without much more driving around we found one only a mile or two from the edge of the national park. On our drive across the New Forest I loved the sight of it - it was exactly how I imagined; a mixture of green hills, open heath with purple heather and patches of bog, New Forest ponies, bracken and trees.

After setting up our tent and having a rest for a couple of hours, we chucked rugby, cricket and tennis balls around for a bit in an empty field and then it was time to drive down the road for a quick foray into the edge of the Forest. Several New Forest ponies wandered around, drinking at the stream, crossing the road and nibbling at grass in the middle of a roundabout. One of these ponies took Dave by surprise by coming up behind him without him hearing it and sticking its nose next to his arm.

Not far from the stream, round a corner out of sight, I found something unexpected... a giant sand dune at the edge of some little bracken- and -tree-covered hills! Of course, having seen it I simply had to climb to the top and run down, so I did. Dave declined to do the same, but took pictures of me running down. There was a rope swing hanging from a tree near the foot of the sand dune so we both had a go on that.

The sun was going to go down soon, so after I'd quickly climbed to the top of the hill next to the sand dune to take some pictures, we headed back to the campsite and had some food and a drink at the on-site bar/café.