Lymington
Bliss
Tue 13 Sep 2016 15:47
Strong wind, big seas and the Needles are not a good combination, we took the North Channel. It was interesting, but not scary. Up Lymington River to the Town Quay. The one and a half miles of navigable river is crammed full of boats, there are massive marinas which spread out into the river, pontoons, the Isle of Wight ferry, not much room for manoeuvring. A pretty Georgian town, the Town Quay is the perfect spot to access the town, shops, station, and staying until Monday we qualified for the 'three night special' of £54, with great .....ok, perfectly good showers, no electricity, but fab and peaceful location.
Lymington Town Quay, wherever you look there are masts.
There's a Waitrose in Lymington, I was a bit overwhelmed by the choice but coped!! Having organised our evening meal we set off on the bikes to check out the New Forest. Apparently New Forest was named by William the Conqueror almost a thousand years ago, Nova Foresta was the term used, nova=new and Foresta=hunting ground! there you go.
We caught the train to Brockenhurst, not very far away but it was late afternoon when we set off. We had an interesting ride through the forest, the bike paths were wide and gravelled, not what we were expecting. We soon broke away from the main tracks and enjoyed some typical Brompton terrain of mud, roots and less obvious trails. After a couple of hours we returned to the station and were surprised to see cattle grazing beside a busy road through the village, that'll be why people have cattle grids at the end of their drives then! Over the next few days we saw cattle, ponies and donkeys grazing and causing general chaos in the most unexpected places.
Saturday 10th September, Owen's birthday. It rained quite hard for several hours, we managed a run without getting too wet and the rain stopped by mid-afternoon.
Sunday 11th, gorgeous sunny day, long bike ride out to Beaulieu, Hythe and back via Brockenhurst, some roads and some New Forest tracks, lovely, and refreshingly flat as bike-rides go.
