Jekyll and Hythe

We were up soon after seven. Again, chemical influence helped Di sleep well, and I had a fairly good night also. After a shower and an early coffee and tea, I read the news while Di prepared for the day. We had booked for breakfast at nine, and set about deciding on the day’s agenda as we broke our fast.

The first stop of the day was Bucklers Hard. We had visited before, but when the girls were young. The location was an old shipbuilding slipway, where wooden ships were hewn from local oaks to serve in the Royal Navy. Some 55 ships were built there over the years, including Nelson’s favourite, Agamemnon. They have been doing further archaeological excavations there this year, and though they have now closed down, there was a marquee showing what they have achieved. It was quite gripping.

After a coffee, we returned to the car and headed to Hythe, on the west bank of Southampton Water. We parked up and walked down towards Hythe Pier. This is 700 yards long and one of the longest in the country. It is also home to the world’s oldest continuously running pier train. We paid our £1 entrance fee and walked out over the water. To the north-east of us, we could see P&O’s Iona in port along with Celebrity Cruises’ Apex and another smaller ship. I must say that it was quite tempting. I felt that a cruise would be quite pleasant right now! 

As we walked along the pier, there were several plaques explaining some of the local history - the Supermarine factory, the home of T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), the berths for the Empire Flying boats, and so forth. Hythe was also home to Sir Christopher Cockerill, who invented the hovercraft. It was really very interesting. When we had finished on the pier, we had a stroll through the town and then stopped in a pub for a drink before continuing today’s explorations.

Leaving Hythe, we headed back towards the hotel, but drove straight past in order to go to the Blackwater Arboretum. This is just 3 miles from the hotel and tucked in an area of the forest with the most amazingly tall trees. That may sound a bit obvious, but much of the New Forest is wide open clearings with gorse and heather; then there are wooded areas with moderately sized trees, but nothing I would consider tall. Then we arrived at Blackwater and found one of the rails marked as “The Tall Tree Trail”, and this was fair and truthful advertising. We didn’t follow that trail, but even at the trailhead huge cypress trees and sequoias were soaring into the sky. Offhand, I can’t think of any other arboretum or even woodland that I have visited in the UK that has quite such a collection of huge trees. 

We actually followed a different trail. This took us round the periphery of the arboretum and gave us a chance to see the wide variety of trees that the Forestry Commission tends in this part of the Forest. Though there were other people about, they were few and far between, and our walk was immensely tranquil.

We spent a quiet couple of hours in the hotel garden. We were accompanied by some lovely cold drinks and our Kindles. I finished the book I had started yesterday, and started on a new one. Soon after five, we returned to our room to get ready for dinner. Like yesterday, we skipped the main dishes on the menu. We both made do with a starter, while we sat and chatted.

With dinner finished, we returned to the garden with our Kindles and sat in the warmth of the evening, enjoying our books until it started to get dark. It was the last full day of this short break, and it had been lovely.

Out and About

 We slept well, despite the heat. (There is no air conditioning in this old hotel.) We surfaced soon after, and while I showered, Di dozed waiting for me to make some tea. With tea and coffee on the go, I returned to the conundrum of the Internet connectivity. I can connect easily enough to the hotel’s WiFi and can access the Internet on my iPhone, but cannot get through to the Internet on the MacBook. Every idea that I have come up with (and AI has suggested) has failed. I decided I would try again after breakfast when I was closer to the WiFi hub.

We went down for breakfast. Di chose Eggs Benedict, while I went for a “Lite English Breakfast”; this was like a full breakfast but skipped the baked beans, the tomatoes, and the hash browns. Once that was finished, we went to the bar, and I resumed my battle with the Internet—which I lost. I did, however, manage a “Plan B” whereby I did a copy and paste from the MacBook (where I had written the post) to the iPhone and then emailed the blog post to the blog. This is all very fine, but it does mean that there are no photos embedded in the text on the day it is posted. I will have to retrofit the photos when I return home (or maybe post them individually).

While I was struggling with this, Di was chatting with a lady who sat nearby. She had a small dog which she was raising with a view to it becoming a companion dog for people who need some emotional support. She was a very nice lady, Polish originally, but living in South West London while working remotely (in tech) for a Norwegian company. She, like us, is staying until Sunday, so we will probably see more of her before we leave.

We decided that we would visit Milford-on-Sea. It was only about 25 minutes away, and we followed the SatNav down to the car park at the beach. It was really quite delightful. Having paid the fee (more about this later), we walked along the promenade towards Hurst Castle for about 100 metres, then turned and walked the opposite way.

Across the water, there was a good view of The Needles, at the tip of the Isle of Wight, but in the other direction, we could see across to Mudeford and Hengistbury Head. Though it was hot, there was a lively breeze, so it seemed very comfortable. Clearly, the sea was a big draw, as many people were enjoying the water and swimming between the breakwaters. We did an about turn and stopped off for a coffee and a snack. Di chose a Dutch Apple cake, while I had a rock cake with clotted cream. It was a good snack to see us through until dinner.

We returned to the car and programmed the SatNav. The next stop would be Exbury Gardens. We had visited before (in 2009), but the gardens warranted another visit. The gardens were laid out by the de Rothschild family and are quite spectacular (even if a little stressed by the continued hot weather). 

It was while we walked through the gardens that my watch “pinged”. I had a message, ostensibly from RingGo, the parking company. It claimed that I had an outstanding payment and demanded I log on to the website they quoted and provide my car registration and my payment details. I smelt a rat. I checked Apple Pay and could clearly see that my payment for this morning’s parking had gone through. I also checked where the message had originated, the Philippines. I think not. The message was ignored, but clearly RingGo has a data leak.

We drove back to the hotel. Di’s needed to lie down and elevate her knee. We headed for our room and I went in search of cold drinks. We had a couple of hours with our Kindles before getting ready for dinner. We weren’t too hungry, so both limited ourselves to just a starter, before retiring to the garden for a few more quiet hours with the Kindles. 

New Forest

The day started around seven. We both slept well, though in Di’s case, chemicals were involved. Though we are off for a few days’ break, there was no hurry to get going. We had a very leisurely breakfast and then pottered around until Lottie arrived. We were then distracted by the latest disasters and tales from her family.

I had charged the car to 100% overnight. This was the first time I had successfully done this. When I unplugged the charger, it estimated that I had a range of 368 miles. When, however, we set out some time later, the estimated range had increased to 406 miles. There’s no way the car would achieve that, but I admire its optimism.

I finally loaded the car, and we set off at about 11:00. It was not a smooth journey! After 35 minutes, we were still on the Chichester bypass, less than 6 miles from home. Further on, we hit the traffic filtering off the M27 because of the A31 closure (caused by the recent fires which have destroyed the equivalent of 240 football pitches in the New Forest). From that point on, we were in a slow-moving convoy all of the way to Brockenhurst. It was gone 13:00 before we arrived at the Forest Park Country Hotel. We were too early to check in, but sat in the bar with a beer and snack.

Refreshed, we went for a short walk to see the ponies who were sheltering from the blistering sun alongside walls and under trees. They were quite content and very happy to hold up traffic when they were in the mood. Being on foot, this didn’t trouble us. 

We returned to the hotel and checked in properly. I fetched the cases up to the room, and we unpacked. Then, we retired to the garden and sat in the shade of a large parasol and made the most of the glorious afternoon.

We had an early dinner, then went out for a walk in the forest. We found a quiet spot in an open area and sat down to call Ellie and see how she was faring. She hadn’t slept well last night, and spots were still coming out, but she was feeling okay in herself.

We returned to the hotel and settled in the garden with our Kindles. I spent some time writing this blog post, only to find that I couldn’t get connected to the Internet. Pah!