Another New Forest adventure

Plus a few mysteries solved

Maybe adventure is a bit grand to describe our weekend. We were away from home and as sometimes happens, we got a tiny bit lost on one of our two longer walks. But we had fun! And we solved a series of small mysteries. Not bad for a two-day trip.

Readers may remember that we periodically spend a night or two in January in the New Forest on the Big Island.¹ Because Pete has a mid-January birthday, which isn’t always the most delightful time of year, going to this part of the world has become our way to celebrate the day and do some walking. If you want to read about an earlier adventure, here is a link:

This time, we decided to visit parts of the Forest that we hadn’t seen before. We headed first to see Bucklers Hard, an 18th century ship-building village which is now a lovely riverside park with a few restored houses to look inside, a museum, and walking paths. It was mid-morning, bright, clear and still below freezing, so we opted for a short walk to get our heart rates up and body temperatures up as well.

Buckler's Hard, Hampshire

On our way to our next stop, we found ourselves behind an enormous tractor, going VERY slowly. Mystery No. 1: Why was the tractor going ever so slowly? Answer: Eventually I saw three wild ponies trotting up the road in front of the tractor. They were looking for a way off the road that wasn’t fenced; eventually they found their way off the road to a small village green and we could all pass safely. Wild and ‘owned’ grazing animals are allowed to roam freely in the common lands, and are quite tame.

Tractor, horses, and finally one of many signs warning to watch out for horses.

After passing a series of tiny villages and travelling along very small lanes, we were amazed to find at the coast a huge parking lot with an elevated cafe, and hundreds of people and their dogs. The coast walk along the beach went for miles, and on this clear sunny morning, it was no surprise that many others had a similar idea to walk and enjoy the warmth of the sun. We explored the rocky beach, sampled some soup at the cafe, and headed on our walk.

We saw a few wild ponies almost immediately after we entered the first field.

We strolled along lovely lanes, through some fields and woods, including stretches our guidebook said, “This section can be very muddy.”

Top: a couple of the 'very muddy' sections of our walk. Bottom: Lovely lanes and farmhouses along the route.

Once we circled around back to the coast, we noticed the now receding tide and shorebirds coming to feed on the exposed mudflats. That is our lovely Isle of Wight in the background.

After all this fresh air, we headed off to our Pub for the evening: we’ve stayed at the same place each year; they have comfortable accommodation and delicious food. That evening we ended up in a long discussion with the couple sitting at the table next to us. One of the lovely things about pubs is the convivial atmosphere. We talked about many things over the course of the evening, much of which was about their adorable dog.

Only towards the end of the evening did they tentatively ask me what I thought of the US’s incoming president. We let them know he wasn’t our first choice and a few other thoughts. After further discussion, it transpired that he is a Conservative Councillor within Wiltshire County, not too far from the New Forest. Ah, perhaps a difference of opinion then. But that was the most wonderful thing, although we had very different politics, we were able to carry on discussing all about our lives in a relaxed, curious and respectful way. They were delightful people to share some time with, and we are so happy to have met their acquaintance. I wish that all such conversations between those with differing politics could be so collegial. That is one mystery I wish I could solve.

The next morning after a lovely large breakfast, we headed out for a walk we’d read about in our guidebook. The walk in the book ended at our pub; however, we planned to leave from the pub. That meant we would be reading the description ‘backwards’. How hard could that be?

Turns out, harder than we thought! The directions were endlessly confusing and—no big surprise—we ended up not where we meant to be. In fact, we had gone in exactly the wrong direction. We did, as a result, get another opportunity to traverse a path that earned the description: “This section can be very muddy.” HA! But on this section they had constructed a boardwalk so we didn’t have to be actually wade through the mud for very long. Whew.

We got to go both down and then back UP these stairs. But better than trying it through the mud!

Finally we ended up at our destination: the Rufus Stone. And what, you ask, is the Rufus Stone? Mystery No. 2! Answer: It’s a monument to the place where a hunter named Sir Walter Tyrrell shot an arrow at a stag. Unfortunately, the arrow bounced off an oak tree and struck and killed King William the Second, surnamed Rufus (so the memorial says). As you can see below for yourself, the memorial stone is located in a remote grove of oak trees, tucked off a major motorway through the New Forest. So now you know².

Top L, setting of the Rufus Stone; top R, bottom L and R all tell the story of the reason for the stone.

The remainder of the day was spent mooching around various villages, and of course catching the ferry back home. As always, we mulled what it would be like to live here, and spent some time comparing and contrasting a life lived in the New Forest versus on the Island. For the future, we are thinking, after there is no need to be living on the Island. We just cannot help ourselves!

I’ll leave you with a couple of photos describing the last mystery we solved on this trip. We saw a large ‘ship’ off in the distance on the first day from the shoreline and couldn’t quite make out what it was. It looked like the right two thirds of the low-lying mass in the next photo:

The big landmass is the Isle of Wight. In the middle are the Needles rock formation (the three big blobs). But all the dark stuff to the right: is that a long ship?

Additionally, on the ferry ride home, we saw the image above and were confused about the long extension to the right of the Needles. But as we got closer to the Island, this is what we saw:

The isolated “ship’ is actually Hurst Castle, built at the end of a two-mile long spit jutting out from the Big Island, off the photo to the right.

And that was the last mystery of the weekend solved, whilst we enjoyed the lovely sunset.

One of the most delightful parts of the weekend—having a several-hours long conversation with people we had just met—turned out to precipitate the most vexing mystery: Why can’t more of our conversations be filled with curiosity, respect and allow for other opinions? Answer: Perhaps we need more evenings in pubs with no need to be right or wrong; just interested conversations and an adorable dog to mediate. 🐕

Thanks as always for reading this week! I hope you are finding joys in your January days, and perhaps fewer mysteries!

See you next week,

xoxo Sabrina

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1. Big Island = UK ‘mainland’; not to be confused with the European continental mainland. Since we are geographers, Big Island seems more accurate than Mainland. And yes, also silly.

2. I’m thinking there is probably a bigger story here about poor King William Rufus, and therefore this qualifies as Mystery No. 3., but as it is close to deadline, we’ll just have to save the answer to that mystery for another time.