{"id":232,"date":"2013-03-06T17:48:02","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T17:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesumpnersagain.wordpress.com\/?p=232"},"modified":"2013-03-06T17:48:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-06T17:48:02","slug":"bransgore-1-to-3-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"Bransgore – 1 to 3 March"},"content":{"rendered":"

It had been a while since we had been to the New Forest and so we had selected the Caravan Club’s Centenary site<\/a>, just outside Bransgore<\/a>\u00a0for this weekend.\u00a0It’s built on the site of one of the old New Forest airfields<\/a>\u00a0– I think it must be the Winkton one, but I can’t find definite confirmation of that. It is very smart-looking and we arrived on the first day of the 2013 season. The welcome was warm and we were soon setting up on our “fully-serviced” pitch. To the\u00a0uninitiated, \u00a0this type\u00a0of\u00a0pitch has its own drain, \u00a0so no need for worrying about waste\u00a0water\u00a0and its own tap, so you get a constant uninterrupted supply of fresh water without\u00a0having\u00a0to fill up. \u00a0A little\u00a0more\u00a0expensive\u00a0but much easier on Paul!<\/p>\n

The facilities were very new, sparkling and warm and welcoming, even exceeding the usual\u00a0high\u00a0standard you expect of a CC site. The dog walk was more than adequate – if a\u00a0little\u00a0boggy in places. It is a very\u00a0nice\u00a0site and we are very likely to\u00a0return\u00a0(when we get time!).<\/p>\n

\"P1010396\"<\/a> \"P1010395\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Saturday was \u00a0bit cloudy\u00a0but there was promise of better weather\u00a0and\u00a0we set off, late\u00a0morning\u00a0for a visit to Christchurch<\/a>. We parked down\u00a0by\u00a0the Town Quay<\/a> and stopped for morning\u00a0coffee\u00a0at the cafe on the quay, just by Place Mill (which\u00a0is a restored Anglo-Saxon watermill.\u00a0Sadly it does not\u00a0open\u00a0until Easter so we’ll save that for another trip). They sold food for the many swans, ducks and\u00a0ubiquitous\u00a0pigeons that can be found along the\u00a0riverside\u00a0walk. I couldn’t resist!<\/p>\n

\"P1010378\"<\/a> \"P1010367\"<\/a> \"P1010368\"<\/a> \"P1010374\"<\/a> \"P1010379\"<\/a> \"P1010373\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can see\u00a0how\u00a0grey\u00a0it was in those pictures. Once Paul had dragged me away we walked past the mill again and along the Convent Walk<\/a>, past the Castle ruins<\/a> and into the town centre. This seems to consist largely of \u00a0a numerous variety of eateries and a fair old sprinkling of charity shops. \u00a0Bliss. We paid our\u00a0customary\u00a0visit to Waitrose to buy lunch and decided \u00a0to eat it at Hengistbury Head<\/a>. By now the sun had come out and we went for a walk down to the beach.<\/p>\n

\"P1010394\"<\/a> \"P1010393\"<\/a> \"P1010391\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Hengistbury<\/a>
Hengistbury Head<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We popped back to the caravan for a cuppa which turned into a snooze opportunity, \u00a0before setting off for Bournemout<\/a>h to meet up with my cousin (once\u00a0removed, it transpires) Joe and his\u00a0girlfriend, Lisa. \u00a0We walked from\u00a0their\u00a0flat through the gardens<\/a>\u00a0, with\u00a0their\u00a0abundance of squirrels (Archie was in his element!) and thence\u00a0down\u00a0to the pier. \u00a0Interesting to note that they are demolishing the IMAX<\/a>. Whilst it is\/was a bit of an eyesore, it seems like a massive waste of money –\u00a0especially\u00a0as it only opened in 2002!<\/p>\n

\"Joe,<\/a>
Joe, Kay, Archie and Lisa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"P1010398\"<\/a>
Sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There was Ska event on\u00a0the\u00a0Pier which looked like good fun and we might have popped in, had it not been for\u00a0Archie. Instead we went\u00a0for a drink, sitting\u00a0outside\u00a0as the sun went down. \u00a0It was very\u00a0pleasant\u00a0until then, but\u00a0suddenly\u00a0became\u00a0very chilly so we moved on. We walked back up through the town (I had forgotten\u00a0how\u00a0hilly it was) and made for The Goat & Tricycl<\/a>e, a proper pub with real ale and dog-friendly to boot. \u00a0It was pretty busy but we\u00a0eventually\u00a0managed to get seats and had a very nice meal. After dinner we walked back to the flat and popped in for coffee, before taking our leave of Lisa\u00a0and\u00a0Joe. It was a lovely evening.<\/p>\n

We arrived back at the\u00a0camp-site\u00a0and the\u00a0temperature\u00a0gauge\u00a0showed it was -2C! We had a very cosy night, though and a peaceful sleep.<\/p>\n

We had hoped as it was quiet season, we\u00a0might\u00a0be\u00a0allowed to\u00a0stay\u00a0on for a bit, but sadly those serviced\u00a0pitches\u00a0are very \u00a0sought after and we had to\u00a0vacate\u00a0by midday. We were home by 1 pm and so had\u00a0time\u00a0to unpack, get the washing on and do a few\u00a0bits\u00a0of\u00a0housework\u00a0and such. I like this! Now, we are looking forward to our next trip away, over\u00a0Easter, when we are taking a trip up to\u00a0Herefordshire\u00a0with\u00a0friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It had been a while since we had been to the New Forest and so we had selected the Caravan Club’s Centenary site, just outside Bransgore\u00a0for this weekend.\u00a0It’s built on the site of one of the old New Forest airfields\u00a0– I think it must be the Winkton one, but I can’t find definite confirmation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[128,208,210,242,451],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bournemouth","tag-caravan","tag-caravan-club","tag-christchurch","tag-hengistbury-head"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesumpnersagain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}