Day 08 - Friday 20th May

We had organised to hire a car today for the weekend from Thrifty at West Hampstead. After getting advice from Jackie and Nicky about getting there, we caught a bus from Golders Green to Swiss Cottage station and then walked the last km. We arrived at the Thrifty depot on time at 10am.

Originally Suzy and I were going to New Forest by ourselves but Nicky and John decided a couple of days ago to come with us. Nicky and Amelia would drive down with us and John would come after work on Friday evening. So the compact car we had booked on line in Sydney was not going to be big enough. We made several calls yesterday to Thrifty and ended up booking a 7-seater Ford people-mover with a child seat.

The man at Thrifty said he wasn't allowed to install the child seat for us and so we did it ourselves. It took about 20 minutes by the time we figured it out. Having conquered that challenge, we drove to Hampstead to pick up Nicky and Amelia and then to Golders Green to pick our gear. Jackie had offered to let us leave our big bags at the B&B for the weekend and so we only needed to take small bags for the weekend away.

It was just as well that we got such a big car because we managed to fill the boot - mainly with Amelia's gear such as clothes, stroller and portable cot.

The TomTom directed us north to the ring road before we headed south-west along the M3 motorway towards Southampton and Bournemouth. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at a Costa cafe in a service centre next to the motorway.

Once we reached the New Forest area, we turned off the motorway and headed towards Milford-on-Sea. The first stop was at Brockenhurst where we came across an area where horses and ponies were roaming free. The animals were very tame - you could walk right up to them as they grazed on the grass.

Since our B&B doesn't accept children, Nicky and John had booked a B&B in the nearby town of Everton. After meeting the owners and leaving their gear upstairs, we went to our B&B in Milford-on-Sea.

Next, we drove to the sea-side which is only a block or two away. It is a beautiful coastline and very windy. The girls decided it was too cold to go for a walk and so after I'd taken a few photos, we headed into town for an early dinner. Amelia was getting tired. The aim was to get dinner and have her in bed by 7pm.

Both B&Bs had recommended a pub called the Smugglers Inn. It had great character, good food and a children's play area. One thing that fascinated us was that several customers brought their dogs into the restaurant.