After a very heavy sleep we got moving around 7:30 am and I did a quick email check. I seem to have become used to sitting in some strange corner at some odd angle, not breathing, while the computer attempts to connect to some unsecured internet wifi connection….Bournemouth was no different.
We headed out to find the New Forest. Oddly, it’s neither New nor really a Forest, but we were heading for breakfast with two more Flickr friends.
I have so many pictures since May 29th but I haven’t had time or a good enough connection to load them up….will have to wait until we are home now.
On we go, as we turn out of the hotel we immediately take a wrong turn on the first roundabout…not an auspicious start to the day. But we get sorted out and heading in the right direction and the computer takes us down some odd streets, but we make it out onto the main highway in the direction of the New Forest.
We arrive in Lyndhurst a bit early and start to fret about the fact that I can’t remember if we were supposed to meet Mary and Karen at the cafe (which I can’t remember the name of…) or in the parking lot. We have a bit of time so we grab the laptop and start wandering around looking for an unsecured wifi hotspot so I can check my Flickr mail where I know the answer lies. As we wander along the alley doing a classic “can you hear me now?” move with the laptop Kirk looks back and sees two women in a small blue car waving at us. They have found us! Whew!
The cafe hasn’t yet opened so we take a wander into the New Forest (which isn’t a forest…at least not by Canadian standards….open fields of scrub don’t usually attain the title of “forest” where we come from….did I mention that?). It is very pretty though…. and ponies and cattle wandering about freely add an interesting spin on things. The ponies have the right of way in the New Forest, and we see lines of cars as a pony wanders down the centre of the roadway. Apparently they release pigs in the forest as well at certain times. The pigs eat the acorns that fall from the trees The foals apparently eat them and it makes them ill as they are toxic to them, so the pigs help clean them up. Bit of natural way to keep the system running smoothly!
After breakfast we take a drive up to a pond and there are donkeys! One shaggy little fellow is crying out to have his photo taken but every time I point the camera at him his ears go back and he steps towards me. I know enough about livestock to understand that if I stand still things won’t end well for me…so I keep backing away. The little guy may be small, but I know he probably has strong teeth and I don’t need to arrive home with a donkey bite. We move on to a second pond and visit a swan family, take photos of water lilies and wander around the area. As Mary moves forward through the grass I hear a noise I have a bit of familiarity with and look down. Less than a foot from my foot is a small coiled snake valiantly hissing at me. I let out a surprised cry and step back laughing saying “garter snake”. At least that’s what I thought it was. Mary tells me to watch out, it’s an adder, and although not lethal, my bare toes pose an easy target and a potential visit to the hospital…hmm….don’t need that only hours before a flight. Hard to believe that little thing has such a nasty bite, I didn’t actually realize there was anything that nasty in England. No harm done, four camera geeks try to get a decent shot of him, he slips off into the grass and disappears. And we must take our leave. We say goodbye and offer yet again, should anyone visit Vancouver they must look us up.
As we are heading to Heathrow we make one last silly stop. Wouldn’t you know that there is a small community called Canada. So we did have to go so that we can visit Canada twice in one day! Yes, we are geeks.
We navigate our way to Heathrow, take a wrong turn trying to find the rental dropoff, end up circling around for a bit completely and utterly lost before we see the Car Rental Return sign. YAY! And at the last turn into the National rental lot…Kirk tries to turn immediately right instead of going around the roundabout. He’s done so amazingly well driving us safely around this country…….but let’s make one last attempt at a head on collission before we go… SCREECH!!! That’s me screaming, not car tires. 😉
And now we sit in Heathrow waiting for our plane, enjoying a last pint of Strongbow.
It’s been a long trip, it’s been a wonderful trip. And interestingly enough, while it is usually the sights that make the trip for us, this one turned out to be the people. We met so many wonderful people. While we are tired and happy to go home, we can’t believe that five weeks have flown by so quickly.
2 comments
YAY … sure looks like the trip was WORTH it !!!!
That “New Forest”? It was “new” in something like the 1700’s. I think.
It is always and only the people we meet that make the memorable moments of a trip, and life in general. And you have had a great one. Trip, that is. Too soon to talk about your ‘life’. 😉