We started off from Rudgwick not too early, and got caught in a little bit of rush hour traffic, but not much. Our first stop was the New Forest (which is actually really old). Much of it is gorse and heather rather than forest. Wild ponies roam the Forest, just like Chincoteague and Assateague, clogging up the roads at times.
There was a mother horse & her pony near the side of the road along a deserted stretch of road, so Ant stopped the car, giving us a chance to get out and look more closely at them. I immediately scraped my sandaled foot along a pricker bush – not quite sure what type, but I was bleeding a little. We walked fairly close to the pony but the mare got a wild look in her eye, so we scarpered.
Further along we pulled into a parking area so we could all get out and stretch our legs and look around. Here is a pic from this particular area.
Almost immediately after this picture was taken, I felt a sharp poke on my chest. When I looked down, a bee was struggling inside my shirt! I flapped him away, but his stinger remained. so after I pulled that out, I took a Benadryl and we motored on. Darn, that New Forest is vicious!
A while later (during which the Benadryl put me to sleep) we arrived at Weymouth, to Alex’s great delight. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we had a beachfront hotel! What more could you want? Here’s the view from our room.
At our end of the beach it was not so fiercely populated, but starting at about the middle of the promenade (concrete boardwalk 🙂 it became so ridiculously crowded that there was no elbow room at all. We really got lucky, happening to choose a hotel at this end.
We went to the beach almost immediately. Alex and I went in the water, while Chris and Ant sat on the beach and chatted. The water was COLD! We stayed in for about 20 minutes, then came out to get warm; Alex then went back in for a while, and I tried to air-dry because we had no beach towels. I have learned that bathing suits with skirts take a LONG TIME to air-dry!
We had our first fish & chips meal here in Weymouth. You saw the picture of it in yesterday’s post. Alex ate all his food!
After our beach sojourn, we went to McDonald’s just for a comparison with USA restaurants. This McDonald’s had a lot more salady items on the menu, and not so much fried meat.
If it hadn’t been so hot we might have walked around town more, but it really was blistering. We drove around for a while to look at the town and when it finally got to evening, we went for a walk around the town and looked at all the restaurants and ticky-tack shops you find at beaches. Alex and I shared a hotel room; Chris shared with Ant, and we had an early evening to prep for our next day’s jaunt.
Tomorrow, Wincanton, Cheddar and Bristol!
The US Picks 