From the small car park in front of the pub we walked north along the road over the crossroads and down to the farm where we turned left onto the marked footpath.  It was quite muddy at first but dried out as we made our way up the long but quite gentle slope leading towards Cheselbourne.  Unfortunately when we arched the top of the third field, intending to walk across to the now closed River Arms we found that the field was flooded and extremely muddy.  We took a detour intending to turn off the road onto the next footpath but there was no sign of this and a continuous barbed wire fence along the side of the road.  We instead walked across the top of the next field until we were able to join the proper route.
We took a circular route around Cheselbourne so we could look down and across the valley from above the church even though this meant a bit of a climb.
Heading north east out of Cheselbourne we made a small unplanned deviation around Whitelands Downs.  This presented us with a small item of agricultural machinery on which to sit and have our coffee.
After crossing the Binghams Melcombe to Dawlish road we turned south east and followed a path that runs almost parallel to the river.  After a while we chose to stay on the higher path as the are around the river looked very wet.  We kept on this path all the way through Brook Farm and back into Dawlish.
Feeling energetic we then did a circuit around Dawlish that took us up the quite steep road to the top of the hill just before Parsonage Farm where we turned right into Park Hill Woods.  There was a lovely display of snowdrops here.  We then followed the marked footpath back down to the bottom of the valley across the footbridge and back to The Oak.
Lunch at The Oak was very good, not expensive and the service was excellent.  Liver and bacon casserole with mash and veg £7.95.  THREE sausages, 1 egg and chips was only £6.95.  For those with larger appetites an extra egg and beans made this £8.65.
An excellent walk, an excellent lunch, excellent company - what more could you want?  Answers on a postcard.

An amble around Arne in Three Parts.
We started from the RSPB car Park at Arne which cost £4.

The first part of the walk took us across the field to the south west of the car park and on a track that leads towards Middlebere Lake from where you can look across the lake to Middlebere Farm.  Our leader had thought it might be possible to walk across Coombe Heath to join up with the tracks there.  Unfortunately the ground was too wet for this and after stepping very carefully over some pretty boggy ground we meandered our way back to the point at which we first left the field.

We then set off on fairly well drained tracks to do the circuit around Coombe Heath.  We visited one of the bird hides that was very busy but did not stay long as we would have found it difficult to comply with the "Quite Please" signs.  There was nobody else at the Screen so we sat there and had our refreshments including some very nice cakes from Pam.

We walked back to the car park and set off on the third leg which took us through the woods and then along the beach to Shipstal Point.  We then returned via Big Wood.

There were a few deer wandering around and they took fairly little notice of us until we got quite close.  There was also a good variety of birds on the feeders by the information centre.

This is a good area for a walk at any time being a mixture of open heathland and ancient oak woods with a variety of other trees and as you might expect lots of birds. A good day was had by all and it seemed longer than the record shows, perhaps due to the boggy ground on the first stage.

Lunch at the Castle Inn was very good.  Steak and Ale pie was not that cheap at £10.95 but the meat was very tender and the puff pastry top much better than most similar tops.  It was served with some nice chips and a good selection of vegetables.  We were offered not only hot water for our tea but also two extra tea bags.

Wednesday's forecast was so bad that we changed the walk to Thursday and planned once more to make good use of the New Forest cycle tracks.
This turned out to be an excellent decision Wednesday was one of the worst days we had had recently with loads of rain and strong winds.  Thursday was bright and sunny apart from one very short shower.

We parked at the pub where we were befriended by a dog that wanted to play "fetch the stick".  Luckily he did not try to follow us as we started walking along the roadside and up the slope past the Rufus Stone memorial.  The original stone was actually replaced by a cast iron monument in 1841 and this has copies of the original wording which you can read below.

The first part of the cycle track was surprisingly poor but it improved for a while before we reached a section that was being trenched to lay a new water main.  This work continued along the road until we turned off at Janesmoor Pond.  A strange find by the road was a small collection of apples and oranges which looked in good condition.  Not knowing their providence we resisted any desire to try them!

We found a conveniently blown over tree, one of many, for our coffee break just before leaving Kings Garn Gutter Inclosure and crossing into Coppice of Linwood.  The ground seemed quite reasonable here so we had left the cycle track and made a short diversion into the unknown.

There were quite a few places where there was a lot of water flowing across the paths and down the narrow streams. There was however nothing difficult until we reached Coalmeer Gutter.  This was quite deep and the only way to reach the other side was to use one or more of the trees that had fallen across the river.  This was an interesting experience particularly when having all arrived safely at the far side we realised Rob's map had been left behind!  It was recovered safely by the youngest walker.

The pub was not very busy.  It was lovely and warm and we had a very good meal of sausage, mash, onion gravy, chips and four different vegetables for £8.95.  There was also a plentiful supply of tea for under £5.

The weather forecast was terrible predicting rain and very high winds.  Clive got the wind up and failed to turn up.
Three toughies headed out from the car park at the Crown Stirrup and out through the back garden to join Beechen Lane.  The Forest was really wet and we had, similarly to last week, decided to stick to the cycle tracks.
There was quite a lot of rain and wind but it really did not seem as bad as forecast particularly to those with umbrellas.  Unfortunately Ray's was still in Westbourne. There was one, and only one, very brief touch of sun captured in one of the photos below.
There were still more signs of the damage already inflicted on the trees with numerous shallow rooted conifers ripped out of the sodden ground.
It was a decent walk in spite of the weather and we were pleased to have been out for the day.
Liver and bacon casserole with mash and vegetables and a pot of tea rounded off the day nicely.