Not being needed at the beer festival for a few days we
headed just a few miles away to the New Forest. We’d both read Edward
Rutherfurd’s book ‘The Forest’ so it was interesting to finally visit the
places mentioned therein. The forest looked exactly as I imagined it and the
heath also. We treated ourselves to a couple of days in an easy to find
campsite overlooking a heath full of New Forest Ponies! Hours of entertainment
and a welcome rest after a couple of weeks dashing about.
We did a detour past the Rufus Stone on the way out of the
Forest. It’s mentioned in the book The Forest and is where the King was
accidentally (?) killed but an arrow that deflected off an oak tree in the
1100’s (we think). We had a picnic there, went for a walk and at last saw some
deer. Nick had commented earlier that there should have been deer in the Forest
and I suggested they may not have been able to afford them, with them being so
‘dear’. Ha ha.
