Deery, Deery Me

24/06/15 The New Forest to Bridport

When we crawled out of our tent on Tuesday morning, the camping field was full of deer. Munching away, casually, and just generally munging out. Even though Steve and Heidi (CGOAB Run, Ride, Roam) and Others had told us about them, it was still amazing, and we sat and watched them for ages. The caretakers were hooning around on the big tractor, mowing the field, and the deer just ignored it. He even had to stop while a couple of them walked across his path.

Deer! Lots of them. Apparently these are all males, the girls are in the forest with the babies.

It is really cool, so many of them, just ignoring all the dampers.

After breakfast and deer watching, we decided to walk to Brockenhurst along the trail through the forest and Heath. A nice couple we'd chatted to yesterday (Roger and Mary), had said it was nice, easy and there were wild ponies, cattle and deer to see. It took us about half an hour, and as we got into town, there were horses everywhere throughout the village. A couple of donkeys eating people's gardens, and the driveways even had cattle grids. We had cream teas, and walked back to the campground.

Whoah, Nelly, don't trust them, they are sneaky animals.

I'm not confident! They know it, and now they are following me.....

Most driveways have these, or a bloody big gate.

These horses are outside the dentist. I'm not hanging around here.

The beautiful New Forest walk. Luckily we got a great weather day.

As the sun was shining, we just relaxed and watched the deer again, until they decided they were bored with us and left. So we hopped in the van and drove a about 15 miles to check out the Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum. Bloody hell, Will, two museums in two days. Enough already! But, again, it was pretty interesting, with over 350 restored bikes from all eras. Sammy Miller is a world renowned Trials rider, and just loves bikes. We were a bit late to meet him, as he was off with a few of the old bikes to Goodwood, in Chichester, for a show.

Driving to the museum, these horses were just relaxing out of the sun....on the road!

Looked like a shitty old barn from the front. Wow, nice.

We met Barnaby on the way in, he was very cute for an Alpaca.

Hundreds of motorbikes lovingly restored and researched.

Some had pedals as well as motors, as the motors were not yet reliable.

So much information, I can't take it all in.

This motorcycle has the same brand seat as my bicycle. It is 101 years old.

After the walk and the museum, we were buggered, so we decided to stop in Brockenhurst and have dinner early. We chose an old pub with a name that reminded us of Australia a bit, "The Snake Catcher". The food was okay, but the pub story was good. It was originally named The Railway Pub, but was changed in respect of one of it's patrons. He was a recluse, who lived in The New Forest in a cone shaped hut made of bracken, and he used to catch snakes to sell to tourists, zoos and for research. If he got bitten, he would treat himself by cutting out the bite and putting on home made ointment. He used to frequent the pub, and died there, in one of the out houses. 

They have some really funny named for their pubs. 

Back at the campground, we had a visit from Roger and Mary, who had been walking all day, and we enjoyed chatting about our families and children. They  have seven kids, including one special needs daughter, who they care for. Their other children are grown and live all over the world. They were a great couple, having a well earned rest for a few days.

Roger and Mary (just over 70yrs old) giving us some tips on what to see.

This is our English Fridge, we just leave it outside overnight....ha ha ha, not really!

After the beautiful day, the night got cold, so we jumped into bed, read our books and fell asleep.  In the middle of the night, we were woken by rustling, and footsteps outside the tent. At first I was totally freaked out, but once I gathered myself enough to listen properly, what we could hear, were deer, next to our tent ripping up the grass and eating it. They were so close, we could hear the saliva in their mouths swishing around and them swallowing. Oohhh, disgusting. One of them accidentally kicked the stupid alfoil BBQ, and they all got a fright and ran off. When we got up in the morning, there was no sign of them.

After the, now usual, breakfast, coffees, relax, we chucked everything into the van and headed back west towards Lyme Regis. We have to pick up the bikes on Friday, and we're ready to head back to Sue and Brads. We stopped at a little village called Bishops Caundle (means small hill), to use a loo, and ended up in The White Hart pub, having lunch. Gale, the owner, tried to get us a yurt down the road, which sounded cool, but they only rent them for "Mini Weeks" at £600 for four nights......holy crap, do you get a butler and a maid, and a prostitute each?

The narrow, windy roads through the forest. Very pretty when you aren't the driver.

Needless to say, we continued on. We decided on Bridport, and luckily our route took us past the historical Cerne Abbas, which has the Cerne Giant. It is a man carved on the hillside, out of the Dorset Chalk. It is supposed to be hundreds of years old. Hhmmm, bit of a laugh really.

This is the Cerne Giant......I called it Dick Man on a Hill.....he he he, 

The only otter we were able to find...bummer.

We picked Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, and it was huge. It had permanent holiday homes, caravans, two fields, a club, restaurant, shop, pool, everything a small village has and more. It was also expensive. I didn't really want to stay and pay the price, but Will was buggered from driving, and I wasn't really keen to drive, so stay we did. We heated up some Sainsbury ready meals, and drank some beers from the little shop, had a great shower, and went to bed. Oh, don't forget, we watched the million bunny rabbits just on dusk. Cute.

Camp near Bridport. Expensive, and huge, but quiet and awesome showers.