George's World Tour South of Stoke - Day 5
We slept pretty well last night, in fact the only minor trauma was caused by a police car driving past at 5am which was precisely the time I'd popped outside to answer a call of nature. Thank god I'd taken the precaution of hiding behind a wall. They slowed down to admire George, and seemed sufficiently distracted by him not to notice me keeping as low a profile as I could a short distance away.
We got up this morning to a complete change in the weather. The forecast appeared to be right, and the day looked promising with clear skies and sunshine. After a fried egg muffin we headed into the New Forest for a walk, loaded down with a lot of cakes (they were going out of date) as well as our regular sandwiches, Kindles and cameras.
We ambled along in what seemed like ever decreasing circles (although Claire assures me it wasn't), and spotted a green woodpeckers along the route, and a lesser spotted woodpecker (we think) which was inside a hole in a tree poking his head out making a right racket. According my bird app on my iPhone they're common birds in the UK, but I haven't seen any for years. Maybe they prefer it down South.
I also had my first encounter with a group of New Forest Ponies, which roam free throughout the forest. They weren't particularly interested in us and we were able to walk past without incident. I thought I'd been pretty brave until I let myself down by screaming when a cyclist suddenly appeared from behind. I think he thought I was a bit strange until I told him I'd thought he was a horse, and then he thought I was really strange.
We eventually arrived at a little picnic area, which had some nice wooden tables and was fenced in to prevent the ponies stealing food or other naughty behaviour. There was no one else there so we spent a few hours there chilling out as Claire's knee was playing up.
Fairly soon after arriving I spilt a load of water all over the table which upset my Kindle a bit, causing it to keep freezing at crucial parts of the story. I gave up on reading after a while and left my Kindle drying in the sun while I went off to play with my camera.
In an uncharacteristically bold moment, I decided to go against what the sign said on the inside of the toilet door, and approach a group of ponies (by stealth no less) to try and get some photos of them. You'll be pleased to hear that this story does not have a disastrous ending, I was not charged or trampled by any ponies. In fact, when I emerged out of the bracken, they were all flat out, lazing in the sun. They got up after a while and I got a few good photos, in particular one of a nice grey pony swishing its tail.
After that, my Kindle was still playing up, so after our Belgian buns I spent an hour sunbathing and then we returned to George by a far more direct route.
We popped into the local information centre, picked up some leaflets about local campsites, the ponies, and things to do, and then headed across to a shop calling itself an outdoor "superstore". It wasn't as super as it could have been, but we did buy a new camping toaster which I am very excited about using tomorrow.
We've parked George up for the night in exactly the same spot as last night, and have spent the evening drinking wine and eating meatballs and a mountain of only slightly stodgy Smash. We're just waiting for the sun to set behind George whilst perusing some of the leaflets.
It turns out that the ponies we've seen today are not actually wild. We were suspicious that they might not be as some of them have little leather collars on (bit of a giveaway really), and now I've got myself a leaflet published by the New Forest Pony Publicity Group to confirm it, and also provide me with other useless facts that I feel obliged to pass on through this blog.
All the ponies are actually owned by New Forest Commoners, which is not a group of peasants as it sounds, but posh horsey types who exercise their Right of Common Pasture. The ponies are all registered and passported (!) and whilst some spend their entire lives happily roaming around the forest, some are sold to other posh horsey types who keep their ponies in stables instead of forests.There is quite a hierarchy in pony management, with the Commoners at the bottom (well, technically I suppose the ponies are at the bottom), followed by the Agisters and then topped by the Verderers. The 6 Agisters look after the ponies on a day to day basis, and the 10 Verderers sit in the ancient courtroom in Lyndhurst and administer the Law concerning the New Forest as well as having "complete administrative control" of all the stallions in the forest. Not sure how you control stallions, but they seem to know what they're doing as none of the stallions gave us any trouble today.
I think I have stunned you with enough pony facts to last a lifetime, so will move swiftly on and conclude today's blog before you all fall asleep.
You will be surprised to hear not only that we are planning on going pony trekking tomorrow, but also that it is my idea! I'm not really sure why I suggested it given my fear of horses, but hopefully they will be as well behaved as today's ponies. Maybe I will get a discount for being so well informed about ponies.
After that we're going to check into a campsite in the forest and await the thunderstorm that the BBC has predicted.
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