New Forest

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having been born and bred on the Isle of Wight, I thought it quite odd that I never had visited the New Forest! Its a huge area of National Park land on the south coast, just a short hop over the water from good ol'Wighty. So, we chucked our stuff in the car and went in search of some sun {ANY sun!} for our first wedding anniversary weekend.

I loved the damp green velvety moss all over the trees and the ground, the huge tall pine trees and of course, the wild horses that roam about freely in the woods and heathland areas. Within the park lies some towns and villages, and quite astonishingly, those horses are free to walk down the middle of the roads, into the villages, eating anything in their paths, we saw one big old horse standing head on to a car coming the other way, looking as though it was going to charge at it, its all very amusing. Lots of foals too which are unbelievably cute!

one day we took our camping stove and various pickles and cheeses to a steam in the woods and had ourselves a very fine luncheon.

we were staying at a campsite right in the middle of the woods, on a farm. It was horrendously full, but we found a spot at the bottom field right opposite a pond, which was lovely.

as a treat, I splashed out on some new sleeping bags, I hate that sweaty nylon feel of our old bags. These are from Anorak, 100% cotton, made in Britain! mine has seagulls on it, and Nao's has stags.

a nice bbq and a rest in front of the pond, looovelllyyy.

next day was our anniversary, one whole year of being a Mr. and a Mrs. {accept of course I'm a Ms.!}

we had lots to ponder about, but i have to say that being married is very nice indeed and highly recommended!

I made Nao a card in the few minutes before we left for our trip, it leaves little to be desired but its the thought that counts, right?

and Nao made me a ring! a little Laurel Leaf carved ring of 18ct white gold. It is the same design as his wedding ring. He also lined an antique ring box with Liberty print fabric, amazing!

we had a nice leisurely breakfast as we'd found out that we had to vacate that field on sunday! what a weird campsite eh?

after packing up we went down to Lymington which I am fairly familiar with as it has a car-ferry connection to the Isle of Wight. But we went on a Puffin Cruise, a small boat which takes people out onto the Solent. We wanted to go on a long trip to see the Needles lighthouse but it was cancelled, so we went for a quick trip to the Solent and back anyways...

the sky was grey and spectacular.

back at the harbour, we had a drink and sat on the harbour wall and admired the locals...

lots of crab fishing going on!

after inspecting every campsite in the Forest, we ended up going back to the original one seeing as we had already paid for it, it was very busy and tightly packed, but we managed to have a very lovely evening in fact!

We ate asparagus and shitake mushrooms, {asparagus make my wee smell really odd, is it just me?}.

Nao washed his hair in a bowl, and I helped.

going back home, we met some more locals who seemed to think the roads are there for them...

we stopped by Beaulieu and had a nap in a meadow and fed some horses...

and then back to London, ACCEPT we made a de-tour to west-sussex where we also broke down! But thats another story {which i will tell you later on!}.