At Easter, we drove to the south west of England over 10 wonderful days.
Here's some of my notes made on 11 April about Day 1 (9 April 2009):
• We used a StreetCar hire for the holiday. Dwayne discovered when picking it up from the next door carpark that it had a flat tyre which hadn’t been changed by the previous hirer. So, he changed it and found that we had to drive to a garage in Hammersmith to have the flat one repaired and the spare changed.
• ...which meant that we were running very late and that we wouldn’t make our car ferry booking at 4pm. This was made additionally stressful because WightLink said that all ferries from Lymington (pronounced Limmington) were booked out for the rest of the day due to the Easter break. In the end, we were lucky and managed to squeeze into a later ferry to my great relief.
• On the way to Lymington we were stunned to see ponies just meandering over the open fields and at times, as they willed, across roads. There were no fences and they wandered past pubs and whatever else was along the way.
• I later discovered the story of New Forest – which today (11 April) we traversed much more extensively – whose rules were founded by William the Conqueror of 1066 fame, who instituted that commoners living in the Forest can let their ponies, cows and sheep graze on it, they can collect firewood and dig for clay. And to this day some take up this option – well, at least the first part. Apparently about 200 people graze about 5000 ponies and cattle on the land year in year out. Each Autumn there is a round-up of all the animals, they are checked for good health before winter, they are branded by their owner and their tales are clipped to signify the appropriate levy has been paid. Amazing. It’s illegal to feed them and they didn’t seem very keen on trying to be patted!
• On entry to the Isle of Wight, we drove around the coast to the west and south and found our YHA at Totland Bay with only a little trouble. After settling in, we walked up to a local pub for some lasagna and steak & kidney pie. We were so tired after the debacle with the flat tyre so we were quickly asleep in our hostel room.
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Easter 09 Adventure
At Easter, we drove to the south west of England over 10 wonderful days.
Here's some of my notes made on 11 April about Day 1 (9 April 2009):
• We used a StreetCar hire for the holiday. Dwayne discovered when picking it up from the next door carpark that it had a flat tyre which hadn’t been changed by the previous hirer. So, he changed it and found that we had to drive to a garage in Hammersmith to have the flat one repaired and the spare changed.
• ...which meant that we were running very late and that we wouldn’t make our car ferry booking at 4pm. This was made additionally stressful because WightLink said that all ferries from Lymington (pronounced Limmington) were booked out for the rest of the day due to the Easter break. In the end, we were lucky and managed to squeeze into a later ferry to my great relief.
• On the way to Lymington we were stunned to see ponies just meandering over the open fields and at times, as they willed, across roads. There were no fences and they wandered past pubs and whatever else was along the way.
• I later discovered the story of New Forest – which today (11 April) we traversed much more extensively – whose rules were founded by William the Conqueror of 1066 fame, who instituted that commoners living in the Forest can let their ponies, cows and sheep graze on it, they can collect firewood and dig for clay. And to this day some take up this option – well, at least the first part. Apparently about 200 people graze about 5000 ponies and cattle on the land year in year out. Each Autumn there is a round-up of all the animals, they are checked for good health before winter, they are branded by their owner and their tales are clipped to signify the appropriate levy has been paid. Amazing. It’s illegal to feed them and they didn’t seem very keen on trying to be patted!
• On entry to the Isle of Wight, we drove around the coast to the west and south and found our YHA at Totland Bay with only a little trouble. After settling in, we walked up to a local pub for some lasagna and steak & kidney pie. We were so tired after the debacle with the flat tyre so we were quickly asleep in our hostel room.
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