Ying suggested a trip down to the New Forest in Hampshire. The New Forest is the smallest of the national parks in the UK.
It was originally founded as a park by William the Conqueror in 1079, so it's not really a new forest in my opinion.
You can read a bit about The New Forest here.
It is different from an Australian National Park in the sense that it was full of towns, roads, ponies, cattle and loggers. But I guess they are trying to preserve the historical context of it as a working common that is pretty much unchanged by the millennia that has passed since being founded as the private hunting domain of of William.
It was a beautiful place with quaint towns, ponies wandering the streets, wide expanses of heath and actual forest.
The ponies are a special feature of the New Forest and are actual a recognised breed and are all actually owned by the commoners - read about the ponies here.
Highlights were the main town of Lyndhurst. This was a lovely town with a really cute high street, lots of interesting shops (like going to those places like Bowral & Katoomba). The shop that made the biggest statement about the town was their only car dealership just at the start of high street - Ferrari's and Maserati's. I guess thee New Forest commoner is not so common anymore.
After a Cornish pasty in Lyndhurst we drove to a parking place a few miles out of town and hand a walk in the forest. Probably not the best time of year as the trees were all bare and the ground was very soggy, but we walked for about 2 hours and enjoyed the quiet and fresh air.
After the walk we drove around to Beaulieu - a gorgeous little town with a beautiful old manor house, a ruined abbey and ponies wandering the roads. We didn't have long to stay there, but will definitely be back in summer to do some camping and further exploring.
Beaulieu has a French name (coming from William the Conqueror's time) but now has a very distinctly English pronunciation - bew-lew. Here is how to say it: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=beaulieu (speakers on).
Anyway Beaulieu also houses the National Motor Museum which is supposed to house the biggest collection of vintage cars in the word.
After Beaulieu, we popped into Buckler's Hard for a butchers, but found you had to actually pay to get into the village - serious. With time short we gave it a miss, but this was an important ship building area with the close proximity of logging from the New Forest supporting the industry there. It was one of the ship building towns that supported Nelson's ship building program.
From there we took the one & half hour drive back home.
Very much a beautiful part of the country and we look forward to doing some camping there in summer.
Dad suggests a book called The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd which is one of those historically based novels that follows life in the forest over the last 1,000 years. I haven't read it yet, but will do so soon.
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| Ponies resting in the open just near Lyndhurst |
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| Brad and a beautiful old moss covered tree in The New Forest |
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| Ying modelling on a great fallen tree. |
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| Brad re-living the dragon riding scene from Harry Potter |
