Another grey and overcast day for the bank holiday weekend. There may be a nice day or two sometime next week. Ever hopeful.
Moe and Sue spent the morning trekking around the New Forest on horseback.
Horse Riding
In the afternoon we walked 5 miles on a circular trail from Brockenhurst.
A tougher ride today. The trip to the “Drift Inn” for lunch was around an 8 mile cycle ride from Black Knowl and predominantly uphill through the Forest tracks and trails.
There seems to be a bigger variety of animals roaming the Forest this year and more in numbers too. The traditional New Forest ponies, donkeys, Shetland ponies and Highland Cattle.
Variety of animals
Timing of our arrival at the “Drift Inn” was not ideal as a coach load of seniors had just arrived 2 minutes earlier. Initial service was a nightmare as they ordered their pint glasses of tap water and then proceeded to eat their pre-packaged sandwiches in the garden…
We caught the train from Beaulieu road back to Brockenhurst and then cycled back to the campsite.
Beaulieu Road Train Station
The weather stayed fine and dry for the duration of the trip but the rain started just as we arrived back on site. It’s now early evening and it’s still raining posing a question mark over tonight’s BBQ.
Today consisted of a cycle ride through the New Forest to the The Oak Inn – a Fullers pub at Bank on the outskirts of Lyndhurst. Food was quite expensive at around £8 for a sandwich and the sandwich of the day, Pastrami, left something to be desired.
Cycling to Bank
A word about the caravan club site, Black Knowl.
Black Knowl CC Site
It’s in a lovely location but the facilities are in desperate need to updating. Apparently the Caravan Club purchased the land earlier on this year so it is believed that improvements will happen.
The toilet facilities are unusual in that the main 12 cubicles are individual rooms arranged in a circular fashion, each one consisting of a toilet, wash basin and shower. Not the most efficient of arrangements.
The monsoon rains seem to have receded for a few hours and so today we took a trip to Hurst Castle.
Hurst Castle and Lighthouse
It takes a long time to walk there along the gravel covered walkway and views of the needles at the Isle of Wight are clearly visible. This is in fact the closest distance to the Isle of Wight from the mainland.
The Needles
By the time we returned, we were around 3 hours overdue on the pay and display parking but miraculously there was no parking ticket waiting for us.
Overnight the heavens opened and we must have encountered around 50mm of rain and very strong winds.
Hardstanding “Lake” pitch
The awning and Sue’s tent survived relatively unscathed but our pitch at one point did turn into a lake.
By mid-afternoon the rain had subsided and the sun shone for a brief few hours. Long enough in fact to cycle into Brockenhurst and procure a few items for an evening BBQ. The previous night we had eaten at the “Snakecatcher” pub and enjoyed a mixed grill – one where you cooked your own meat on the supplied volcanic rock plate.
Here are a couple of pictures taken on the cycle ride yesterday.
New Forest Footpath
Just outside Black Knowl
This was our third trip to the Caravan Club website at Black Knowl.
Organisation for these trips is getting a little more efficient and it takes just around a full day to load everything up and swap all the caravan stuff from caravan to car and to load the bikes of top of the Sorento.
The weather forecast wasn’t good with weather warnings of severe wind and rain for much of the south of England and in particular Hampshire.
The alarm sounded at around 07:30 and by 10:15 we had hitched up and were on the road, the satnav showing an arrival time of about 11:30 and a distance of around 60 miles.
We arrived at Black Knowl at 11:50, ten minutes before the “allowed” arrival time but in light of the inclement weather we really wanted a hard standing pitch so we could also erect Sue’s tent.
View from Awning
Needless to say we weren’t by any means first as there was already a queue of vans waiting for reception to open. Still, we did manage to establish ourselves on a decent hard standing pitch and hunkered down in the van until the predicted rain and storms had subsided.
Fortunately we only had tickets for the Saturday because the rain set in again today and it was heavy from mid-morning throughout. Cold as well so an opportunity today to update the blog.
Next a word on Operation Stack. It must be unbelievably miserable for the people of Kent trying to go about their daily business. We see on the news just row upon row of lorries – we don’t see the misery suffered by the locals as all the minor roads and towns are just gridlocked.
And most of the issues this week have been caused by the migrant low life in Calais trying to cross to Blighty to claim their benefits and healthcare.
Ahh, my birthday treat.
Pendragon @ Ramblin Man
The Ramblin Man fair where my fave band are playing – Pendragon.
Their set was fantastic
Pendragon @ Ramblin Man
if a little short for my liking but I had a front row position and their act was watched by several thousand festival goers, receiving much praise.
There were plenty of other good bands on (we attended just the Saturday – luckily as Sunday was forecast to be washout number 2) such as “Blue Oyster Cult”, “Saxon”, “Scorpions”, “Dream Theater”, “Anathema” and “Camel”. Plus many more at the array of stages.
We were fully prepared for a wet day today. Weather warnings had been issued and they weren’t far from the mark. In a 24 hour spell, the normal rainfall for the month of July descended upon us.
This was a day to stay at the van and we spent the afternoon sorting through pictures from prior trips. We’ve something like 50 thousand that need sorting, cataloging and in many cases, deleting. We managed to sort through around 500 so a long way to go.
A word about the campsite.
Bearsted CC Site
Like all Caravan Club sites these days it’s expensive and the six nights broke the £200 barrier – although our daughter Sue joined us for the entire trip.
The campsite is well maintained and our fully serviced pitch is hard standing and of course has all facilities included.
As has been noted on other websites, the wardens are a bit picky and certainly not flexible regarding late arrivals. One hapless Dutch couple who turned up at 9:15pm were told in no uncertain terms that the site closed at 8 and they wouldn’t be staying…
Not the proper Leeds – but the Leeds in Kent. I’m not certain the proper one has a castle although it does have a Brewery experience!
Thursday was a day out at the (not) Leeds castle which is litterally just a mile or so from the Caravan Club Campsite at Bearsted. Mind you, Operation Stack is still in progress and so a 2 minute drive took 20 minutes. More later.
Approaching the Castle
Leeds Castle is definitely worth a visit but it’s expensive. £24 (July, 2015) was the price of an Adult ticket although we secured a 25% discount because of our membership of the Caravan Club
Leeds Castle