Cycle Touring England Saturday 23rd January. Bognor Regis to Christchurch (England). 73 miles.

Seeing as the weather’s fairly good at the moment I’ve decided to go away for a day or two. For the past few weekends I’ve been going out on rides and after getting so far I was wishing that I’d brought some overnight stuff so I could continue, so this weekend I did! I left home quite late this morning with no real plan of where I was going to go, all I knew was that I was going to head West into the wind so I had it on my back on my return! It wasn’t until I reached the pink ferry at Warsash that I decided I would continue on. After reaching Southampton and catching the Hythe ferry I decided to ride through the New Forest and head for Brockenhurst and stop there for the night. By the time I reached Brockenhurst it was starting to get dark, which was just about right as it’s never very nice cycling in the dark especially in the New Forest where there’s no lights and all you hear is rustling in the bushes along the side of the road, it’s only the New Forest Ponies but it does make you wonder and put you on edge a bit! Anyway after arriving in Brockenhurst I went to the Rose and Crown, the pub I intended to stay at only to find it was closed for a refit! I tried another hotel that I passed but that was full! Not being one for looking around to much, if I don’t pass somewhere I don’t bother so there was nothing else to do apart from continue on in the dark! The only trouble was that the batteries in my back light were flat so I had to buy some new ones which wasn’t a problem apart from when I stopped to get them my bike fell over spilling all the contents of my bar bag into the road! After picking all that up and changing the batteries I continued on my way in the dark and rain! It was only about another 10 miles or so to Christchurch where I am now, it just wasn’t a very pleasant ride in the dark and rain! Not too sure whether or not I’m going to continue on somewhere else tomorrow or go back home as I don’t have to be back until Tuesday, think I’ll decide in the morning!