Dad and Dais do the New Forest (July 2024)

Paul Simon wrote Homeward Bound in 1964, an ode to missing a love and wanting to return to her. He didn't write it in The New Forest, but not a million miles away, in Widnes / Warrington I believe.  It's a pivotal song for Simon and Garfunkel and maybe it captures our mood as we travel home today.  "Home, where my love lies waitin' Silently for me..." Beautiful all round.  Before we travel home Daisy suggests we jam in a visit to our favourite place in the New Forest. There is little time for this. But she gently suggests we make time and head off now. And she's right, we can do it.  So we cycle to Hinton Admiral and make a great pace (not too fast, Mummy 😁).  Breakfast at a place called Daisy's (where else), then on to Brockenhurst on the train, just three stops away.  This is the New Forest for us. Like a favourite song, where you have a favourite part, we visit our favourite tree and a tiny stretch of water where we stop for selfies and contemplate get...

It's hot.  Like, holiday hot. Like step off the plane and it hits you like a fish in the face hot.  Cycling in the heat can be fun, but also hard work. Luckily our routes are mostly flat and there is always something to look at; birds, tractors, sheep, cows, witches (OK maybe not), fields, and other cyclists. And the smells too, you always miss this in a car, the smells are amazing even when they aren't great.  Drivers have been patient, giving us lots of room and we've thanked everyone for giving us lots of room.  We set off for breakfast at a place near us. The AirBandB we are staying at doesn't offer breakfast, so Daisy joked it should be called an AirBand. Genius 🤣 Once refueled we headed for Christchurch, not far away but enough to warrant a couple of short stops.  We then decided that beach was what we needed and luckily Christchurch has, I believe, six to choose from. So we headed for Avon, with lots of sand. We headed for Waitrose for milkshakes (and ai...

After what seemed like a long train journey, having to swap carriages was a pain in the butt, we arrived at Hilton Admiral right on time and got our bikes ready.  Using Google Maps (what else?!) we easily found out way to our AirBandB and met Joy, who is our host for the next few days. She made us very welcome and let us use her shed for our bikes.  For our eats, we went to Burley, which is famous for its witches ! Whilst we were having dinner, watching the cars go past, we saw about half a dozen cows walk passed, in the middle of the road, zero hoots given.  On the way home we stopped to see a handful of horses and used our bright bike lights to guide us home.  In the night it rained twice, heavily and loudly. Daisy shouted over to me "Daddy what's that noise?!".  She also said "Daddy, what way did she go?!", half dreaming and half awake. She's so lovely 😍  Today we're cycling to Bransgore for brekkers and then onto Christchurch for the day. There is a...