A day in the Forest - Getting there

Got ready and headed out in the morning (only half an hour late - must be a new record!). Picked up our lunch at the local M&S. An boringly slow drive later (lots on roadworks on the M3 - almost the whole stretch was 50MPH - grrr!) we reached Lyndhurst. Alice Hargreaves, a Lynhurst resident was the inspiration behind the storybook character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. As such, a lot of Alice memorabilia and other association with the book can be found in this village.

From Lyndhurst we headed down towards Brockenhurst. A quick stop at the Tourist info there and we were on our way - we took the Rhinefield Ornamental Drive north from there. We were welcomed into the forest by these ponies (who were in the middle of the road - no wonder it's a 40MPH zone).

We passed a little stream and thought it would be the perfect place for lunch. The place was called "Puttle's Bridge".

After lunch we went posing around the place - the location was absolutely brilliant. There were loads of kids around, queueing up for the makeshift swings on the trees and walking about in the stream (which had an ankle deep trickle of cool water).

Raja got into the stream as well followed by yours truly and Sushmita. Only Uma refused to get into the stream (she said her shoes would get wet - and she was the youngest member of the group!!)

Uma and Raja went up the trees as well and we had a kick about with the football - we all had a great time!!