Deja-Vu

A couple of quality rides on the singlespeed and a heap of gym classes later, we find ourselves packing for a weekend in the New Forest.

We went this time last year. It rained all the time, we both had flu and we saw nothing except wet ponies. We were hoping for better things this time round and decided to have a wheel-free weekend and walk everywhere. The rucsacs are packed, walking boots cleaned, field cooker checked and we are ready for the short drive down to the Hampshire coast.

Weather was sunny and cold and we saw lots - Kite, Buzzard, Tree Creeper, Fieldfare, Redwing, Heron, Wren, Green Woodpecker, Kestrel, Tawny Owl, Chaffinch and Fallow Deer ...

The base for the weekend was the rather swanky-looking Beaulieu Hotel and this was booked with the balance of our Tesco reward points ! On paper it looked nice. It was clean and the staff were friendly but it was hugely over-priced and was populated on this particular weekend by two noisy family groups with largely unsupervised children. We won't go back.

Saturday dawned cold and bright and after a substantial breakfast we headed off across the heath on a bearing of roughly 4800mils to start our little ramble. Well, we rambled and rambled and had a very pleasant morning, bumping into some more of the locals ..

.. who stood still long enough to get a few pictures. I think they are Sika deer. They even appeared quite inquisitive and came closer to check us out as we sat down on a log in the middle of the forest to watch.

After about 13 miles we stopped off in Beaulieu village to sample the soup du jour from the Old Bake House Tea Room. We can thoroughly recommend it. Full of carrot and brie soup and a mountain of granary bread, we wandered off for another few miles and arrived back at the hotel just after dark at about 17:15.

We ditched the gear in the car and opted to go straight out and eat elsewhere. A short drive led us to The Red Lion in Boldre (www.theredlionboldre.co.uk and 01590 673177). This was selected at random by scanning the OS map for a 'village off the beaten track with a pub' and it proved to be a most wise decision. Lovely food, warm welcome, log fire and a very attractive girlfriend - a perfect evening.

Sunday we went off for a recce of the Burley Manor Hotel, somewhere that Molly has fond memories of, but we left undecided about using that as a base for the next trip. Will we eventually locate somewhere in the New Forest that we can recommend ?