The rain has been pretty persistent for the last few days so it's back to the NewForest and a walk on the cycle tracks.
We did a similar walk last January but managed to find a slightly different route this time.  The lower car park was closed for re-work so we started at the top car park again but this time we took the path down towards Wilverley Lodge before turning west towards Holmsley.  Coming out of the Inclosure the route goes down towards the road, under the road bridge and then up the slope for a short distance before turning back to cross a style and walk across the road to the old railway line.

We had intended to walk as far as the road at Helmsley passage but much to our surprise we found we could walk across the lawn area to Helmsley Lodge.  It was a bit splashy but quite passable.  After a short section along the road we turned back into Helmsley Inclosure.  We kept to the cycle track as far as Hanging Shoot and then took a small track that leads quite steeply uphill to the road.  Unfortunately we must have strayed a little and had to climb through the fence!

At Wootton Bridge the water was unsurprisingly lapping the edges of the car park but the ground to the side of the road was fairly good and we had no trouble walking along to Wilverely Lodge. The path along the outside edge of Wilverley Inclosure was however pretty wet and the brambles were a constant tripping hazard.  We arrived back at the car without having had any rain apart from the first ten minutes or so. 
We had a very pleasant and reasonably priced lunch at the Cat and Fiddle (Harvester) where we were kept beautifully warm sitting next to a radiator.

This week the map has a few points marked with a camera to show roughly where the pictures were taken.

Wednesday promised to be the best day of the week once again but there had been a lot of rain recently.  Clive and Ray had experienced a lot of mud last week so in an attempt to avoid more mud the leader decided on something a bit different.
The plan was to follow a 4.5 mile route described by Edward Griffiths in Dorset Magazine but this was not to be.  There was a strong and very cold wind blowing in our face when we set off northwest from the car park so we turned back and headed northeast along the front instead.  This turned out to be an excellent choice as we were well protected from the wind and it was bright, sunny and warm as we walked towards Highcliffe Castle.  We climbed up around 116 steps to wander around the Nature Reserve and then climbed down about 118 steps back to the beach.  It was the same number but we couldn't agree on the figure!  We continued our journey to Chewton Bunny interrupted by a very pleasant interlude sitting by the sea while we had some nice warm drinks.
We then headed slightly inland with the idea that we might walk along the cliff tops.  We found this impossible and became stuck at the end of a couple of cul-de-sacs eventually being forced to walk alongside the main road for a short distance.  We were then able to walk through the grounds of Highcliffe Castle and decent the same steps back to the beach where we retraced our route back to the car.
We stopped at the Curlew for lunch.  The chicken pie was very good, the tea was good and strong and the service excellent.