Hello lovelies!
In the middle of September, James & I took a short break to The New Forest. We rented a lodge, called Forest Lodge in Ringwood. We found it using a website called cottages4you, which I only discovered as I wanted to use our Tesco Clubcard points & that was one of the websites listed. They have tons of holiday places on there, so worth checking out if you're looking for a short break.
We set off late on Friday morning, stopping at KFC for lunch (our guilty pleasure) & our first stop was the Bolderwood Deer Sanctuary. It was raining when we arrived, so we weren't very hopeful we'd see any deer, but sure enough, we found a herd just by the entrance. They are the cutest little things, with swishing tails & spotty backs! We had a walk around the forest paths as it had stopped raining & found the cutest birds, including this adorable little robin. A lot of people seemed to have been put off by the weather, so it was extremely peaceful & quiet.
After our walk, we headed to Tesco, to stock up on some meals for the evenings, as it was a self-catering accommodation. We could check into our lodge from 3pm, so we arrived just after 4, before the heavy rain started! We met a few wild animals on the way, including horses, pigs, cows & donkeys. One of the donkeys stuck her head in James' window & just refused to move, even when another car came in the other direction & had to drive into the ditch to avoid hitting it's bottom! I just love that the New Forest gives animals right of way.. amazing!
Ah guys, just look at our lodge. Isn't it the cutest place you've ever seen? I was so in love with it. It was so cosy & warm & there was nothing better than being snuggled up with a blanket, watching tv. We didn't realise before we got there, but there wasn't any phone signal & the wifi wasn't working so we were completely shut off from the outside world & it was bliss. We played a few games of Scrabble, Ludo & Monopoly & just enjoyed each other's company. The owners had kindly left us milk, chocolates & a bottle of champagne, which was so lovely of them, so we made sure to make use of the gifts! The lodge itself is about 100metres from their house, slightly higher up, next to a field of horses. They had 3 horses; Fletcher, Maverick & Marmite, who we'd see when we left each morning for our days out. We also had a resident owl who you could hear when you were drifting off to sleep at night. Otherwise, it was completely silent.
Saturday was our first full day & we decided to head to Bournemouth. I'd checked the weather & it said it was going to be bright in the morning but rain in the afternoon, so we had an early session of crazy golf in Lower Gardens, followed by a walk near the beach, lunch in Days & then we visited the aquarium in the afternoon. I can't get over how beautiful Lower Gardens was. We had a walk around after playing golf & found a small aviary of birds & there were people singing & performing around the park. It was honestly so lovely. The beach itself is incredibly sandy & pretty, just look at the clouds!
& I'll be honest, the aquarium wasn't our favourite. We paid just under £13 each for entry & we'd finished the tour within an hour. Didn't really seem worth it, except I got to see my favourites; the seahorses & I got some stunning shots of the turtles!
After we left the aquarium, it was pouring with rain, so we thought we'd go on the pier to hide in the arcades, but there was a charge for the pier. I mean, we live near Brighton & I don't know if we've been spoilt all our lives, but it's free to walk up & down the pier, so we were outraged to have to pay! We did however realise there was an arcade before you got on the pier, so we dived in that one instead. James won me the cutest dog!
The next day we headed to Poole. I was quite excited to have a walk along the Quays as it was a dry, but chilly day. It was so lovely there & we met lots of cute doggies as we walked into Poole. We had lunch at Pizza Express & then headed to the Dolphin Centre for a spot of shopping.
Unfortunately we had to leave the following day, as check out was 10am, so we packed up our bags & headed home. Saying goodbye to our little lodge felt extremely sad, we'd really come to think of it as a second home.
I would honestly go back to The New Forest in a heartbeat, it was all so perfect & I feel like we could have explored for weeks, there was just so much to see & do!
Have you ever been to The New Forest?
