Friday 22^nd June 2018

Well we are off again. At the moment I think our experience last year on our four week tour has encouraged us to take shorter more frequent trips – it’s working at the moment.

This weekend we are staying at the Camping & Caravanning club site at Roundhill in the New Forest. It is for a social meetup with campers who enjoy ‘YouTube’ videos – organised by ‘Herman the Hymer’ aka Ads & Zoe. Their YouTube channel is :-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6puIl9U_iC4Z7jz0yaWSrQ

When we arrived (delayed unfortunately by Nigel’s Hospital appointment which was protracted but worth it as all is well) there were four vans in the area the friendly guy at Reception had told us to go to. By the time we had got ourselves pitched and levelled a couple more had arrived.

We spent a pleasant afternoon chatting about our adventures and swapping hints and tips. All dispersing to our own vans about 6pm to complete our setup and have some food. After a short trundle around the site (checking out the amenities and getting a Cycle Route map from Reception) we re-joined our new friends for drinks (mostly alcoholic – but I was good – having only 1 spritzer) and more story telling with much laughter and good will.

Saturday 23^rd June 2018

We awoke today to a lovely sunrise and clear blue skies. Nigel had a go at flying the drone at 6.30 thinking it was a good time with there being few people around. Although his one is marketed as the quietist model available he still had a women come out of her tent and tell him to fly it at a ‘reasonable hour’. I’m not sure when that would be but hey ho – it takes all sorts.

I dozed in bed while he did that – didn’t get up until gone eight when as he was still outside talking with Ads about video (file sizes and the like) – I put all the bedding away and prepped breakfast.

We couldn’t decide between Lyndhurst and Lymington for our day trip so thought we would ask at Reception for guidance on the quality of paths for both routes and go from there.

After a chatt about our respective plans for the day with the others we set forth – Reception were not able to give us a definitive answer so we decided we would go to Lymington (mostly because I like the sea) using the cycle ways where we could

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the tracks where we had to. In fact we ran out of both after a while (slight map reading errors) and used the B3054 from Beaulieu to Lymington for a few miles. It was quite a busy road but we found when we got to town that it was market day so that must have been why.

We found a lot of people wandering through the stalls in the High Street (we went up one side, crossed the road and came down the other) decided not to buy any locally made Cup-cakes (for the afternoon ‘Tea & Cake’ session) as Nigel balked at the price of £5 for four.

At the bottom of the High Street we followed the throng of tourists across the road and down the cobbled street to the Town Quay.

 

 

 

We sussed out where we might be able to get post cards and fridge magnet later and on the wall of the loos we found a free street map showing 3 ‘Town Walks’.

We used it to get to Grove Gardens where we ate the lunch I had prepared earlier before following one of the walks around the Yacht Haven (some lovely, very expensive ones)

 

 

 

the Sea water baths and saw the Isle of Wight Car Ferry dock. We stopped by the quayside for an ice cream (the only whippy one we had found) and then on past an old street gas lamp and the Bandstand.

Soon we were back to the Town Quay where we bought our souvenirs before progressing back to Voyager. We decided to return via lanes (not the busy road) and a ‘path’ shown on our map. The lanes were lovely

but the path was two miles of very rough track which did leave us a bit bone shaken by the time we had completed it. The warden had mentioned it earlier and he wasn’t kidding. Along it though we found this notice on a farm gate

– funny folk down here in Hampshire.

When we got back it was just in time for Tea and Cakes at Bob and Jenny’s van (we took a few cakes we had brought from home – but there were so many they didn’t get touched). Their YouTube channel is :-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZQ5DSOjFao4NcpDgyvX_3Q

Later Richard got out his new BBQ.     His YouTube channel is :-

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSHYLukUFvPMJQL1yH0Frcw

I was hoping to see that things had improved but alas it still seems that black burgers and sausages are the norm. We slunk off and had our own food back at Voyager, returning later for drinks and a lovely evening sitting in a circle swapping more stories. Bill and Jill were very entertaining with their stories of over 20 years of travelling holidays. There was a gorgeous sunset as well.

 

Sunday 24^th June 2018

We awoke to another beautiful day but our little group is breaking up today, some have work tomorrow others the next site on their tour is booked. Our neighbours Bill & Jill had booked another night as they too don’t like to travel on a busy Sunday like us preferring a Monday afternoon.

We stayed around until those leaving had departed, had a light lunch and then set forth to Brockenhurst. Only a couple of miles away it is a lovely small village with a few shops

and a number of nice looking Pub/Restaurants.

 

 

 

Apparently England are playing football somewhere (World Cup I think!) and one of the pubs had a lot of people in supporting the team very loudly. Nice to see but we left them to it. Passing by and heading further into the village centre we found a souvenir shop (postcards and fridge magnet) before finding a ford at the end of the road. I had to have a go and Nigel of course had to video it.

 

 

 

We spent a while looking around, had an ice cream before heading back to the camp site. A really nice afternoon.

 

 

 

When we were nearly back to Voyager a passing cyclist stopped to chatt. He was from Holland and his English was not too good. He told us he was a physiotherapist and that he was impressed that I didn’t let my physical restrictions stop me from doing and going where I wanted too – he was very nice – gave me a high five.

We had our evening meal and spent the rest of the evening with Bill & Jill. I must admit that the new bottle of Strawberries and Cream Baileys tasted lovely (the whole bottle) and by the end of the evening I was very merry.

Monday 25^th June 2018

Home today and I’m feeling a bit fragile this morning – maybe it was something I ate?

Anyway the sun is shining again so after breakfast (just coffee for me) we did the usual emptying and packing away before saying a last goodbye to Bill & Jill and set forth for home.

Off again at the end of the week but got to get Dobby MOT’d first – most important.