13 July 2010 Upwey, Weymouth

Weymouth on a dull day and the traffic on the promenade was hoorendous


The New Forest - beautiful


The New Forest - beautiful


The New Forest - beautiful


Grey Squirrel in Upwey


Badgers


and more Badgers


and more Badgers


and more Badgers


and more Badgers


Woke to rain this morning the first we have seen for weeks, Still all the lawns were getting brown. We especially noticed it yesterday at Beaulieu. The place we stayed last night was a large house with 3 ensuite rooms for B & B guests and the owners live in the building as well. £70 for bed and full English breakfast.

Instead of blasting down the motorways we decided to take a leisurely drive through the New Forest. Lyn didn't like the narrow roads much and having to move off the road to pass vehicles coming the other way but Mick has got used to it now. The drive was beautiful though with the trees, ferns and gorse. There were plenty of horses roaming about as well.

We stopped for a coffee in the middle of the forest as we take our own vacuum flask with hot water but the on/off rain stopped us from doing any exploring. Not so the English. There were plenty of them wandering the tracks in their wet weather gear and their rucksacks and maps of all the tracks. They would occasionally appear from out of the forest at the side of the road.

I think it is frowned upon to just drive through. You really have to get involved with it.

Anyway we arrived at our accommodation in Upwey which was one of four, 2 storey dwellings in the same building. Our hosts owned 2 of them so they let one out as a B & B for £60 per night ($100).

Upwey is a small village with very narrow streets only wide enough for one car with the residents cars taking up one lane parked on the road. Lyn dislikes the narrow roads but with houses close to the edge of the road, there is no room for widening without major demolition.

Our hosts are very nice and we soon got hooked up to high speed broadband from their WiFi box.

I got a great picture of a Grey Squirrel in the back garden.

They told us they feed the wild badgers at dusk so we are looking forward to that as the only badgers we have seen so far have been dead ones the side of the road.

On the news tonight the London Court of Appeal prevented a Badger cull being performed in Wales. The farmers are not happy as they reckon Badgers spread Bovine TB.

Anyway as dusk fell out they came. What a sight. Check it out. They appeared to be almost blind but at the slightest sound, they were off, soon to return.