We leave Black Knowl in the morning after a hectic time here. We’ve packed a lot into the trip since the last posting from Brownsea Island.

Last weekend, the Cuckoo Inn at Hamptworth hosted one of their beer festivals. The Cuckoo Inn is a long cycle ride from Black Knowl but it’s worthy of a visit with or without a beer festival. Friday nights are always popular, with the visiting Fish n Chip van aka Tony’s frying machine.

Friday afternoon was wet at times but the weather improved significantly over the weekend.

Saturday we had a lazy day at the campsite, a hot sunny day and an afternoon BBQ with our friends Chris and Alison.

Sunday we cycled to the Sir Walter Tyrell for a Sunday roast. The food here is excellent and on this particular Sunday there was a band playing from 4pm.

Monday we walked a circular route around the deer sanctuary.

Tuesday we spent in Lymington, first a walk into Brockenhurst and then the train to Lymington. It was our wedding anniversary and in the evening, back at Brockenhurst, we enjoyed a fab pizza at Enzees.

Tomorrow we head back to East Devon.

Wednesday morning and an early start as set off at the crack of dawn for a day-trip to Brownsea Island. Being National Trust members we only needed to purchase the ferry crossing.

We walked to Brockenhurst station and caught the train to Poole. When the railways aren’t on strike, this is an easy journey with 2 or 3 trains every hour. Once at Poole the Quay is a short walk from the station and we arrived on Brownsea Island by 11:30am.

Famous for red squirrels, the island’s habitats include heathland, woodland and a lagoon – internationally important for overwintering and summer-nesting birds.

Brownsea Island is the largest of the islands in Poole Harbour in the county of Dorset, England. The island is owned by the National Trust with the northern half managed by the Dorset Wildlife Trust. Much of the island is open to the public and includes areas of woodland and heath with a wide variety of wildlife, together with cliff top views across Poole Harbour and the Isle of Purbeck.

The island was the location of an experimental camp in 1907 that led to the formation of the Scout movement the following year.

From 1 August until 8 August 1907, Robert Baden-Powell held an experimental camp on the island, to test out his Scouting ideas. He gathered 21 boys of mixed social backgrounds (from boys’ schools in the London area and a section of boys from the Poole, Parkstone, Hamworthy, Bournemouth, and Winton Boys’ Brigade units) and held a week-long camp. The boys took part in activities such as camping, observation, woodcraft, chivalry, lifesaving and patriotism. Following the successful camp, Baden-Powell published his first book on the Scouting movement in 1908, Scouting for Boys, and the international Scouting movement grew rapidly.

We have visited Brownsea Island on one other occasion, primarily to see the Red Squirrels but on our previous trip we saw no activity whatsoever. This time we were treated to a wonderful display by these charming little creatures

The Squirrels we saw, were following their same route each time as the moved food stores from one location to another.

After the highlight of our trip we walked around the Island, taking in the lovely views and admiring the wildlife.

Our bikes, complete with their latest conversions, have had a good run out around the New Forest and have performed remarkably well. The only issue we had is that Moe had a puncture after the first day, despite having only recently swapped our tyres for the latest Continental anti-puncture versions.

Repeated new inner tubes all failed very quickly despite being unable to find any evidence of any objects damaging them. We *think* that because the inner tubes (and our spares) are all in excess of 15 years old that the rubber had become weakened with age and having bought a new one, this has remained inflated without issue…

See the latest details here Electric conversion Version 2.

The weather has been predominantly dry over the last few days but the temperatures remain un-seasonably cold. Our first ride out was a circular route from the campsite to Minstead, via Rhinefield Ornamental drive and returning through Emery Down.

The Fitbit didn’t record the entire journey, running out of battery whilst we “enjoyed” lunch at The Oak Inn, Bank, Lyndhurst.

They seem to have taken the cost of living crisis to a new level, with no evidence of any ham in their ham sandwich. This was rectified but it was an expensive and not great experience.

Sunday we cycled around the Eastern side of Brockenhurst, enjoying a picnic at the side of a railway bridge. Normally, such bridges have very tall sides as a deterrent for “jumpers”. This bridge seemed to have a wooden rail to more easily lean over the bridge and spot the trains. Remarkably, there were trains running!

Someone has a sense of humour in respect of this “carving” of Rudolph!

Our route around the New Forest on Sunday.

Tuesday we cycled to the Sir Walter Tyrell, near to Rufus Stone where we met our friends for lunch. Great company, the food was good and the Abbott Ale nicely kept..

Our original bikes, purchased in 2009 (one Marin Kentfield and a Specialized Crosstrail elite), were converted to electric some years ago. We decided this year, on our return from Spain, that we would have the electric hub wheels replaced with Bafang mid-drive motors. I’ll post a blog entry over the next few days with more details but this trip to the New Forest is the first trial of the new setup.

I’d already cycled around Brockenhurst yesterday and today Moe and I headed into the town for provisions. The mid-drive motors performed extremely well. They have a lot more torque than the front hub drive wheels and the entire setup feels a lot more balanced.

First stop was the butchers in Brockenhurst.

The butcher made up some chicken kebabs, Chinese style and we left with a selection of artisan sausages and some venison burgers. We can highly recommend the establishment.

Meanwhile, the Forest is teaming with livestock and the fruits of spring.

This little chap came right up to my bike.

We arrived at Black Knowl following a 3.5 hour drive from East Devon. We managed to avoid the massive East Devon and wider South West floods which arrived in the late afternoon, turning streets into rivers and causing many main roads to be impassable.

The weather in the New Forest is looking typically English over the next week or so. Temperatures below average and rather unsettled.

Despite the forecast of rain post arrival, the day remained predominantly dry and we had set everything up on our serviced pitch after just over two hours.

In the evening we ate at the Snakecatcher in Brockenhurst and spotted this herd of deer close to the caravan site.