A Day Out in the New Forest

Yesterday Dan and I went on a day trip to the New Forest with Dan's friend Simon (well, I suppose he's sort of my friend too, but I can't imagine hanging out with him without Dan there, you know?) and his girlfriend Lizi.

We all piled into Lizi's car and drove to Lyndhurst, which is the village at the centre of the New Forest. It's also where the only two main routes through the forest meet, which means it's quite chaotic around there. After about 45 minutes in traffic, we just pulled into a gravelled pull-in on the side of the road and walked into Lyndhurst instead.



We grabbed ourselves some snacks, then went for a walk up a hilly field.

(you can't really tell from this picture, but Lizi was wearing a short skirt with black boots. She has this way of wearing things that always make me feel a little bit underdressed for an occasion!)

On the other side of the hill, we saw some horses ponies, so I decided to try and get closer. They kept moving away from us, the cheeky things! Eventually they stopped at some water and I was able to get a couple of photos.



There's loads of ponies in the New Forest. I thought they were wild, but I just looked it up and apparently they're all privately owned (which explains the markings on the ones we saw. I just assumed they'd been marked by rangers to make sure no one stole them), and they're allowed to graze anywhere in the Forest. Interesting stuff.

After our mini adventure with the ponies, we walked back into Lyndhurst and went into a small - and very busy! - sweet shop.



Obviously we had to get a couple of things - there was so much selection!

Then we made our way to the New Forest Reptile Centre. We got there at 4.10 and it was due to close at 4.30, but since it was free and really small (there was also a nature walk, but we obviously didn't have time for that!), we were still able to have a quick look around.




We drove on a bit further and had dinner in a Harvester (the amount that Dan and I eat in Harvester, we probably keep them in business. Seriously. Harvester and Wetherspoons are our go-to cheap-but-tasty food places) before driving back home.

I got to Skype with Mariah in the evening (for three and a half hours! This is what happens when almost 2 months go by without us speaking), so all in all a rather lovely day!



P.S. I've now got over 30 followers! Thank you so much to everyone who follows and comments, it makes me happy :)