I’ve made one or two day trips to The New Forest before, but had never spent enough time there to trailblaze through the forest itself. Thankfully, my very sweet (and potentially psychic) boyfriend surprised me with a weekend away for our six month anniversary.
Puke, I know. Boy’s a babe.
With Airbnb on our side, we drove down to Sway on Saturday morning and set straight off for Milford on Sea. With the Great Storm on the horizon to hit the following evening, it wasn’t necessarily ‘beach weather’ but we had a perfect day nonetheless. Starting with some lunch and indulgent glasses of Mango-Raspberry Rekorderlig at The Raft, we then headed off to explore the town, beach, and do a bit of rock climbing before enjoying a pretty spectacular show of kitesurfing. Though the rather ridiculous winds were forcing me to steal Alex’s biggest and baddest coat, they were doing wonders for the kitesurfers. Look. At. The. Air.
After a packed afternoon, we took a cat nap before heading to The Silver Hind for dinner. I am in no way the type of woman who gets excited about pub food, but with things like venison dark chocolate steak on the menu, we were both pretty hyped. Major kudos to an unassuming village’s pub for creating such an inventive and delicious menu.
Sunday morning may have been spent in bed, but after hiring some bikes in Burley, we spent the rest of the day exploring the New Forest by pedal. As a child I never had a bicycle, so have spent probably less than 30 minutes on a bicycle in my entire life. To begin, I was nervous. To say the least. With cars peaking out of winding roads and a serious confidence struggle, the first five minutes felt tasking…and then the wild horses arrived. In Burley, wild horses seem to appear in the middle of roads by way of fairy dust. It is bewitching.
A few hours later and I was feeling like Lance Armstrong. Ish.
On our return the skies opened just in time to welcome us back to the town centre. We decided to pop into Burley-Licious (cute as only a rural cafe can be) to refuel/dry off with a pink hot chocolate, latte and a handmade scone for my man.
I am so in love.
