Kanga And Wombats Adventures

Kath and Alan live in Christchurch, specifically the area near Mudeford. They are rightfully proud of their ‘patch’.

It is a pretty beautiful part of the world!

They had generously taken a day off packing (in less than a fortnight, they are moving back to Australia for 2 years), to take us on a guided tour of the things they love the most about where they live.

Just down the road is Mudeford Quay, sitting on one side of the entrance to Christchurch harbour. The entrance itself is extremely narrow, probably 60m at best, which creates a very strong current either way dependending on the tides. The swirling water was quite mesmerising to watch, and if we looked very carefully, we could see as far as the Isle of Wight and the Needles!

The Quay itself is composed of The Haven Inn and some ex fishermen’s cottages called the Dutch cottages dating from 1697, the oldest buildings in Mudeford.

A ferry leaves every 15 minutes for the short ride to Mudeford Sand Spit and Hengistbury Head on the other side.

It was good to see the ferry master (or someone) had a sense of humour…if the flag’s up, the ferry is running! Babies, cats, dogs and parrots travel free, but it’ll cost you £1 to take your kitchen sink across!

As it was half term break, there were lots of families out and about engaged in a favourite pastime on the Quay, catching crabs! It was pretty amazing to watch them lower a line down the edge of the wall and literally immediately haul it back up with 5+ crabs attached to the bait.

Kath told us that having languished around in the bucket of water for a couple of hours, the crabs are thrown back in the sea when the kids have had enough fun….how good is that?

We walked a little further on to Avon Beach with a pretty impressive row of those classic bathing huts. I’d imagine it might be a tad busier in the Summer!

Driving through Highcliffe and Barton on Sea, (known locally as WWW, wet, windy and widows), with the blink of an eye, we were in the New Forest.

Think New Forest, think ponies, right?

Perhaps it was the weather, but the normal hoards of ponies were few and far between today. But Kath managed to find those few!

Kath and Alan often walk in the New Forest, and this is one of their favourites.

With lots of water lying around, we had to make a few diversions to reach our refreshment stop, the pretty village of Beaulieu.

The name Beaulieu comes from the French ‘beau lieu’, meaning ‘beautiful place’. Derived from Beaulieu Abbey, it was populated by 30 monks of the Cistercian order from Cîteaux Abbey in France, on land given to them by King John.

Situated at the head of the tidal Beaulieu River, the village dates back to the 13th century.

With the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530’s under Henry VIII, the land was given to the present Lord Montagu’s ancestors.

It comprises 9000 acres of land, and you knew you were on the estate because of the presence of the Montagu family symbol of 3 adjoining red diamonds. They were everywhere, even in the public loos!

Now, I’ve emphasised the word tidal for a reason. In the middle of the village is a set of sluice gates that close off the river at high tide. Once the tide has gone out, the sluice gates are open, creating a rush of water that powered the mill. Ingenious!

We took a walk up the main street, gawping at the beautiful buildings and this funny fellow in front of the school.

The only place to be in Beaulieu for afternoon tea is Steff’s Kitchen, where we had our fill of cake, chips and fried camembert! Yes, we did! Steff’s kitchen sources all its fresh produce from Patrick’s Patch across the road, where the winter veggies were doing just fine.

It was time to head back to town and get our glad rags on for dinner.

We started at Kath and Alan’s local ‘The Ship in Distress’, literally a 2 minute walk from their front door. Can’t get more local than that!

Aperitif done and dusted, we headed off another 5 minutes down the road to their other ‘local’, ‘ The Rising Sun’ for dinner. Thai food! So delicious!

What a great day! Thank you so much, Kath and Alan. At a time when you least needed visitors, you made 100% effort to show us around and entertain us.

We can certainly see why you love living where you do. A little slice of paradise!