Cycling Megan
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Cycling the New Forest
Sunday was another leisurely brekkie, then time to pack up our homes and head off to get our cycles. Luckily we had booked, as when we turned up to collect them they were turning people away again...
We did a circuit of about 16 miles over a mixture of roads and forest roads. It was great fun - couldn't remember the last time I'd been on a bike! One pretty horrible long slow hill tho which we didn't enjoy much, but aside from that it was pretty flat and easy. Had a lovely late lunch at The Oak Inn - really good food, great service and lovely setting. Would definitely go back to it I think.
Then after the cycling it was time to head back to the metropolis - hoping to get at least one more camping trip in though before the summer ends!
We did a circuit of about 16 miles over a mixture of roads and forest roads. It was great fun - couldn't remember the last time I'd been on a bike! One pretty horrible long slow hill tho which we didn't enjoy much, but aside from that it was pretty flat and easy. Had a lovely late lunch at The Oak Inn - really good food, great service and lovely setting. Would definitely go back to it I think.
Then after the cycling it was time to head back to the metropolis - hoping to get at least one more camping trip in though before the summer ends!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
How hard can it be to do a walk backwards...
Saturday morning I was up bright and early. Much earlier than my campmates! So by the time they'd emerged I was up, showered and dressed! We enjoyed our very civilised brekkie of croissants and coffee and took it very leisurely.
We wandered off into the village of Brockenhurst to have lunch and check out the cycle hire. Interestingly Brockenhurst has a NZ connection as wounded soldiers from WWI were hospitalised there. We couldn't get cycles as they were all booked out, so after booking some for Sunday we decided to go for a walk.
The route we had made more sense for us to do it backwards - how hard could it be we thought? As it turned out - quite hard! We got lost, I got stressed (I HATE getting lost when walking...), but Simon and Jackie fortunately remained very sanguine about it all, and Simon navigated us back to the path again! But it did turn a 7.5 mile walk into about 8 - so we had a wee collapse back at the tents.
After reviving cups of tea and some cake we wandered into Brockenhurst for a pub dinner at the Rose & Crown - which had a crazy food ordering system. I didn't love having to stand for about 1/4 of an hour while waiting to order my food... Two pints later and we were done - all feeling very weary after our walking and not much sleeping!
We wandered off into the village of Brockenhurst to have lunch and check out the cycle hire. Interestingly Brockenhurst has a NZ connection as wounded soldiers from WWI were hospitalised there. We couldn't get cycles as they were all booked out, so after booking some for Sunday we decided to go for a walk.
The route we had made more sense for us to do it backwards - how hard could it be we thought? As it turned out - quite hard! We got lost, I got stressed (I HATE getting lost when walking...), but Simon and Jackie fortunately remained very sanguine about it all, and Simon navigated us back to the path again! But it did turn a 7.5 mile walk into about 8 - so we had a wee collapse back at the tents.
After reviving cups of tea and some cake we wandered into Brockenhurst for a pub dinner at the Rose & Crown - which had a crazy food ordering system. I didn't love having to stand for about 1/4 of an hour while waiting to order my food... Two pints later and we were done - all feeling very weary after our walking and not much sleeping!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Hi ho, hi ho, a camping we will go...
Friday after work, Simon, me and Jackie headed off down to the New Forest to go camping for the weekend.
Very exciting! I'd bought a new tent specially- Ness , and as Jackie had never been camping before it was a weekend of firsts :-).
We were camping at Hollands Wood which was really good. We were a bit late arriving and as it was very busy (first day of the school holidays) we didn't have a great choice of sites. We ended up being quite close to the road which made it a bit noisy, but aside from that it was fine. Simon had friends staying there on Friday night, so after we had put our tents up we took our dinner over to their motor home and enjoyed a very nice bottle of wine :-).
As the site is literally set amongst the trees, the ponies just wander through it as they want. Instructions tell you to not leave any food in your tents as they will either walk into them to get it, or trample the tents to get to it!
Very exciting! I'd bought a new tent specially- Ness , and as Jackie had never been camping before it was a weekend of firsts :-).
We were camping at Hollands Wood which was really good. We were a bit late arriving and as it was very busy (first day of the school holidays) we didn't have a great choice of sites. We ended up being quite close to the road which made it a bit noisy, but aside from that it was fine. Simon had friends staying there on Friday night, so after we had put our tents up we took our dinner over to their motor home and enjoyed a very nice bottle of wine :-).
As the site is literally set amongst the trees, the ponies just wander through it as they want. Instructions tell you to not leave any food in your tents as they will either walk into them to get it, or trample the tents to get to it!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
The H's are done...
Another letter bit the dust this week as my journey through my ipod continued...
H.M.S. Fable - Shack
Hal - Hal
Happy Ending - The Phoenix Foundation
Hats Off to the Buskers - The View
Have You Fed the Fish? - Badly Drawn Boy
Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
Heaven is Whenever - The Hold Steady
Heaven Up Here - Echo & The Bunnymen
Heligoland - Massive Attack feat. various artists
Hello Love - The Broken Family Band
Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards it Did - Twilight Sad
Here's to Taking it Easy - Phosphorescent
Here's Tom with the Weather - Shack
Heroes Original Soundtrack - Various
Hey Ma - James
High Violet - The National
Highway to Hell - ACDC
Hits - Pulp
Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks - The Brunettes
Hollie Smith E.P. - Hollie Smith
Home Before Dark - Neil Diamond
Home, Land and Sea - Trinity Roots
Honey in the Lion's Head - Greg Brown
Hope is Important - Idlewild
Horsebreaker Star - Grant McLennan
Hospice - The Antlers
Hot Fuss - The Killers
The Hour of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy
How I Quit Smoking - Lambchop
How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb - U2
Human Conditions - Richard Ashcroft
A Hundred Million Suns - Snow Patrol
Hurricane Glass - Catherine Feeny
Hvarf-Heim (Disks 1 & 2) - Sigur Ros
Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury - Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
I enjoyed the 'H's. Lots of my faves in there - The National (love the singers voice), Hot Fuss is still a great album, and you can never beat a bit of Neil Diamond. Struggling to find ones I didn't enjoy in this letter...
H.M.S. Fable - Shack
Hal - Hal
Happy Ending - The Phoenix Foundation
Hats Off to the Buskers - The View
Have You Fed the Fish? - Badly Drawn Boy
Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
Heaven is Whenever - The Hold Steady
Heaven Up Here - Echo & The Bunnymen
Heligoland - Massive Attack feat. various artists
Hello Love - The Broken Family Band
Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards it Did - Twilight Sad
Here's to Taking it Easy - Phosphorescent
Here's Tom with the Weather - Shack
Heroes Original Soundtrack - Various
Hey Ma - James
High Violet - The National
Highway to Hell - ACDC
Hits - Pulp
Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks - The Brunettes
Hollie Smith E.P. - Hollie Smith
Home Before Dark - Neil Diamond
Home, Land and Sea - Trinity Roots
Honey in the Lion's Head - Greg Brown
Hope is Important - Idlewild
Horsebreaker Star - Grant McLennan
Hospice - The Antlers
Hot Fuss - The Killers
The Hour of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy
How I Quit Smoking - Lambchop
How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb - U2
Human Conditions - Richard Ashcroft
A Hundred Million Suns - Snow Patrol
Hurricane Glass - Catherine Feeny
Hvarf-Heim (Disks 1 & 2) - Sigur Ros
Hypocrisy is the Greatest Luxury - Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
I enjoyed the 'H's. Lots of my faves in there - The National (love the singers voice), Hot Fuss is still a great album, and you can never beat a bit of Neil Diamond. Struggling to find ones I didn't enjoy in this letter...
Where does the time go...
So since I last blogged:
- the world cup has been and gone. I watched NZ play out of their skins, I watched England crash out (yet again...) and after all that I watched my 3rd fave country win the World Cup for the first time - viva Espana!!
- I have been to The Ritz for tea. Divya and I went a few weeks ago - very cool. Great fun to get togged up on a Sunday afternoon and go and scoff delish cakes and drink (herbal) tea from a solid silver teapot... Something also very enjoyable about only being served by men! Although they were in white coats - maybe I wasn't at The Ritz at all!
- I've been doing a 'boot camp'. Essentially exercising twice a week. So I've been keeping up with the boxing and have also been getting into Kettleball. And one circuit class. All three still knacker me out, but I think I'm starting to enjoy it... this is scary!
- I've bought a tent in preparation for a camping weekend in the New Forest next weekend. Hopefully the weather will be good!
- Kevin has torn his achilles tendon - so I've been helping out as he really is quite incapacitated. Making me relish the ability I have to run around and exercise even more!
- We appear to have had summer - three weeks of temps over 25 most days. That seems to be over now though...
- My phone died and I am now toying with the idea of getting a smart phone (but not an iPhone as I can't afford one that flash!)
The Ritz - Me with the cake menu
The Ritz - Me with the cake menu
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
Me with the cake menu - getting ready to scoff!
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
And so to Cornwall for a spot of Cornish coastal walking...
Julia organised a weekend of walking for my birthday - although I was not interested in doing anything for my birthday it was lovely to have an excuse to go away walking!
The plan was to walk from Newquay to Padstow (25 miles), have dinner at Rick Stein's cafe on the Sunday evening and then cycle on Monday. And we pretty much did everything!
Friday night we flew down to Newquay - she had investigated doing the night train, but there seemed to be a random stop at about 4am so we didn't fancy that so much. Went for a stroll around Newquay once we'd arrived. It seems to be the stag do capital of the UK - and having seen it once, I don't think I'll need to go back again! Not the most charming town I've been to... Julia spotted a guy in a mankini about 10am on Saturday morning - I think that 'stag' would have had a very long day...
The plan was to walk from Newquay to Padstow (25 miles), have dinner at Rick Stein's cafe on the Sunday evening and then cycle on Monday. And we pretty much did everything!
Friday night we flew down to Newquay - she had investigated doing the night train, but there seemed to be a random stop at about 4am so we didn't fancy that so much. Went for a stroll around Newquay once we'd arrived. It seems to be the stag do capital of the UK - and having seen it once, I don't think I'll need to go back again! Not the most charming town I've been to... Julia spotted a guy in a mankini about 10am on Saturday morning - I think that 'stag' would have had a very long day...
Monday, June 07, 2010
Wet birthday day...
Monday dawned somewhat damp...
We had the most amazing brekkie at the B&B (which I couldn't finish), then walked the remaining two miles to Padstow to complete the walk. Our original plan had been to do some cycling before getting our train back, but the weather was pretty unappealing so we headed back on an earlier train.
But not before we went to Rick Stein's bakery and bought some fruit scones, clotted cream and jam so we could have our own cream tea on the train on the way back :-). And very nice it was too!
A fab weekend!
We had the most amazing brekkie at the B&B (which I couldn't finish), then walked the remaining two miles to Padstow to complete the walk. Our original plan had been to do some cycling before getting our train back, but the weather was pretty unappealing so we headed back on an earlier train.
But not before we went to Rick Stein's bakery and bought some fruit scones, clotted cream and jam so we could have our own cream tea on the train on the way back :-). And very nice it was too!
A fab weekend!
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Julia paddling on Harlyn Bay
Julia paddling on Harlyn Bay
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
This was actually quite a busy beach - just a well constructed photo to make it look deserted!!
Padstow town
After the most amazingly refreshing shower and rejuvenating cup of tea in the B&B we headed into Padstow for a drink and dinner at Rick Stein's Cafe.
Rick Stein is all over Padstow - cafe, restaurant, deli, fish & chip shop... the list goes on! But we really enjoyed the cafe - the food was lovely, the service was good, and it was nice and relaxed. The restaurant is the uber-posh one - we were a bit more downmarket!
I had crab with chilli and garlic with pasta for a starter, then plaice for the main, then sunken chocolate cake for dessert. Very nice too! Julia went for salt & pepper prawns, sea bream in a thai jungle curry and a cheese board. Lovely birthday meal!
Rick Stein is all over Padstow - cafe, restaurant, deli, fish & chip shop... the list goes on! But we really enjoyed the cafe - the food was lovely, the service was good, and it was nice and relaxed. The restaurant is the uber-posh one - we were a bit more downmarket!
I had crab with chilli and garlic with pasta for a starter, then plaice for the main, then sunken chocolate cake for dessert. Very nice too! Julia went for salt & pepper prawns, sea bream in a thai jungle curry and a cheese board. Lovely birthday meal!
Treyarnon Bay to Lellizzick
Sunday was another 10 miles to Lellizzick farm (a couple of miles outside of Padstow, but where we were staying so we stopped there). We were in room two.
Another great day of walking - fantastic beaches (especially Constantine Bay and Harlyn Bay), walking around the headland past the Trevose Head Lighthouse, and then walking past the observation point at Stepper Point. I was also intrigued by Mother Ivey's Bay which has cursed land apparently...
We walked past a couple of round holes - collapsed sea caves apparently. That was quite odd to think that the ground we were walking over could quite easily be hollow underneath! We saw lots of parts of the cliffs where the sea had worn a hole through it from one side to the other.
We ended up on the estuary so had a wee rest at Hawker's Cove before heading to the B&B. Our feet were feeling two days of walking by then so it was good to take the shoes off and go for a refreshing paddle!!
Another great day of walking - fantastic beaches (especially Constantine Bay and Harlyn Bay), walking around the headland past the Trevose Head Lighthouse, and then walking past the observation point at Stepper Point. I was also intrigued by Mother Ivey's Bay which has cursed land apparently...
We walked past a couple of round holes - collapsed sea caves apparently. That was quite odd to think that the ground we were walking over could quite easily be hollow underneath! We saw lots of parts of the cliffs where the sea had worn a hole through it from one side to the other.
We ended up on the estuary so had a wee rest at Hawker's Cove before heading to the B&B. Our feet were feeling two days of walking by then so it was good to take the shoes off and go for a refreshing paddle!!
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Newquay to Treyarnon Bay
Saturday dawned slightly grey, but that is good weather for walking, so once we'd sorted out all the things we'd forgotten to pack we headed off.
We were doing two sections of the South West Coast path - which pretty much just follows the coast so not much danger of getting lost! The scenery all the way around was just amazing - you'll see on Flickr that I've taken a lot of photos of stunning coastal scenery!
Our first stop was The Beach Hut at Watergate Bay - where we were a bit early for lunch so we had an 'extreme' hot chocolate. And it was pretty extreme! We bought sandwiches to eat later for lunch but it took a long time to work that chocolate off! Got a spot on the balcony and watched the families try to keep warm, and also the various surf schools doing their lessons.
Second highlight was the Bedruthan Steps - legend has it the giant Bedruthan used these stones as steps across the bay. Very cool and really quite impressive.
Saturday night we spent at Treyarnon YHA - the only accomodation Julia could find. It was fine - although somewhat dull as the books available weren't that gripping and we never managed to find the TV room! Great spot tho - and right on the path so no danger of not being able to find it!
We were doing two sections of the South West Coast path - which pretty much just follows the coast so not much danger of getting lost! The scenery all the way around was just amazing - you'll see on Flickr that I've taken a lot of photos of stunning coastal scenery!
Our first stop was The Beach Hut at Watergate Bay - where we were a bit early for lunch so we had an 'extreme' hot chocolate. And it was pretty extreme! We bought sandwiches to eat later for lunch but it took a long time to work that chocolate off! Got a spot on the balcony and watched the families try to keep warm, and also the various surf schools doing their lessons.
Second highlight was the Bedruthan Steps - legend has it the giant Bedruthan used these stones as steps across the bay. Very cool and really quite impressive.
Saturday night we spent at Treyarnon YHA - the only accomodation Julia could find. It was fine - although somewhat dull as the books available weren't that gripping and we never managed to find the TV room! Great spot tho - and right on the path so no danger of not being able to find it!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
That Sunday walking thing again...
Sunday walking for me just never works out... It just doesn't. Something always goes a bit wrong - I should know by now!
On Sunday I went out walking with Nicola and Sarah - Gomshall to Guildford. Just over 9 miles, and the weather was nicer than it had been the day before (ie it wasn't raining!). The walk itself was lovely - very picturesque - very Surrey.
Lunch however was another story... We were all looking forward to it as Sarah had been to the pub on a walk about 18 months ago and had had a lovely meal. Obviously the chef has left... or something... It started with my lime and soda actually turning out to be lime and lemonade... After waiting about 40 minutes for our food, Nicola asked where it was, to be told that the sea bass takes a long time to cook. My roast beef was obviously pre-sliced (so pleased I hadn't gone for the lamb), Sarah's vege lasagne was dry, and the fish was overdone! Sarah sent hers back and got a ploughman's as a replacement. Then we noticed the salads came with the free addition of soil... It was truly one of the worst lunch experiences I've ever had while walking. NEVER going back to that pub again.
I really should stick to Saturday walking...
On Sunday I went out walking with Nicola and Sarah - Gomshall to Guildford. Just over 9 miles, and the weather was nicer than it had been the day before (ie it wasn't raining!). The walk itself was lovely - very picturesque - very Surrey.
Lunch however was another story... We were all looking forward to it as Sarah had been to the pub on a walk about 18 months ago and had had a lovely meal. Obviously the chef has left... or something... It started with my lime and soda actually turning out to be lime and lemonade... After waiting about 40 minutes for our food, Nicola asked where it was, to be told that the sea bass takes a long time to cook. My roast beef was obviously pre-sliced (so pleased I hadn't gone for the lamb), Sarah's vege lasagne was dry, and the fish was overdone! Sarah sent hers back and got a ploughman's as a replacement. Then we noticed the salads came with the free addition of soil... It was truly one of the worst lunch experiences I've ever had while walking. NEVER going back to that pub again.
I really should stick to Saturday walking...
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