What a glorious day….I woke up early then dozed off again and woke up a second time late!!!!! It was so quiet and the blackout blinds had obviously disoriented my inner alarm clock…..that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it!!!!
Having breakfasted we decided to head out into The New Forest…..the sky was blue and the sun was out. In less than 5 minutes we had crossed the cattle grid into the National Park and instantly saw some ponies…Although they roam freely and wildly they are not actually wild they each have an owner …if you live within the New Forest you have the ‘rights of common’, which means you have the right to graze livestock including ponies, cattle and donkeys and, during the pannage season in the autumn, pigs.
We meandered through Sway and headed to Horseshoe Bottom Carpark. This was my mums favourite place. Today there were loads of ponies grazing in small groups. Every so often another group came cantering over the ridge and down onto the flat green area which straddles a small brook. For no apparent reason the wind would get under a couple of ponies tails and off they would go. What a fantastic display they put on for us. We counted 38 at one time, they appeared as quickly as they disappeared.
We stayed sometime here and I made coffee whilst we watched a Meadow Pipit preening itself near the car, the many dog walkers, a couple of riders cantered along the flat and then turned and galloped flat out back, as far as the eye could see, with their dog racing after them and some of the grazing ponies joining in the chase…an absolutely wonderful place .
We carried on as we really wanted to see if we could find some elusive pigs. These are often found on the other side of the A31 & A35. We took Rheinfield Road which leads into an area called the Arboretum Drive. We also cheekily drove around the drive of the splendid Rheinfield Hotel. We have previously seen deer on their drive, but today it was busy with lots of cars attending a wedding.
It really is a very beautiful drive, even when it’s bustling. It was busy trying to cross the A35 to continue on the minor roads through the forest. We made good progress and we’re soon going under the A31. We stopped for a picnic lunch not far from Nomansland. Ponies were all around us…one in particular looked a bit like Noddy, the horse I had owned in South Africa, a beautiful Dun – golden coat with a jet black flowing tail and mane…..but on closer inspection this pony was a bit scraggy compared to my Noddy !!!!!
After lunch we continued to Bramshaw. Sure enough! As luck would have it…There we spied a big sow and two piglets snuffling around for acorns. We were delighted, because out of all the livestock which roam the forest the pigs are the most difficult to see.
We decided to slowly make our way back to the house. We were just commenting that we had seen loads of ponies, lots of cattle plus the pigs but no donkeys. We took the next bend in the road and there were 3 donkeys at the gate of a house….we also saw a couple more on our return journey.
On our way back we decided to detour up to an area signposted The Rufus Stone. We hadn’t ventured here before. After a short time, having gone through a rushing ford, we came across an oak tree with a memorial stone under it. Parking up we went to read about it….evidently King William II ( who was known as William Rufus) was out hunting with Sir Walter Tyrell. The later tried to shoot a stag with an arrow but he missed and hit King William in the chest immediately killing him. An interesting historical fact….however it seems that Sir Walter Tyrell is better remembered than King William II because the local pub is named after the former…yes we did avail ourselves of their facilities.
We made it back to the house by late afternoon and spent the rest of the day resting and enjoying the memories of a wonderful warm day spent surrounded by beautiful nature.
2 J's World of Adventure 