Coddiwomple Stardate 190117
This is the last post for our travels this time around. It has now been 20 months since we left our home in Wellard. The next 18 months have been planned out which includes two more trips to Stuart Island and one to Geraldton for about 5 months. After that we are not sure. If you have been following our blogs you will know we have seen and done so much. Lived in many homes,countries and have been accepted by so many people. One down side of it all is that we cannot imagine staying very long in one place. We know we will have to at some point in our lives, just not yet.
Our month stay in Bournemouth has been the longest. It's been nice to be somewhere permanently for Christmas and New Year. Just like last year when we stayed in the Lower Hut area in New Zealand. We had use of one of the families cars. Another Mini Cooper S. Which Sharon would put on the top of her new car list next to a Jeep Wrangler. Everything is walking distance from the house whether it is shops, beach or parks. It is great having use of the car as we could take both pooches with us and explore further away areas.
One of the first places we drove the dogs to was the beach. The beach is only 2km away from the house. The length of the beach is 16km. To explore all of it having a car makes it a lot easier. It is a sandy beach which most UK beaches are. The only pebble beaches we have seen are those closest to France or whats called the Jurassic coast. The beach is wide with a promenade below the cliffs. One thing I did not expect to see were cows grazing on the cliffs. They have all the colourful beach huts with a couple of piers and many shops.
We also went out to the New Forest area. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror. It is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England. One of the first villages we went to was Lyndhurst. We parked at the visitors centre and picked up some maps. There was free parking for that day. We then walked the dogs to the end of the village. Here there were plenty of open ground for them to wander. We could not take them off the leads at the beginning of the walk because of the cow's, horse's and donkey's. We needed to get passed these obstacles first. Both dogs thought the horse and donkey manure was a smorgasbord of flavours.
Lyndhurst is a nice village and is known for two famous people. The first every Australian should know. Arthur Phillip who led the first fleet to Australia in 1788 and our first Governor. He had 30 acres of land in Lyndhurst who along with his servant Henry Edward Dodd learnt the farming skills essential to set up a new agricultural colony in New South Wales.
The second well known person was Alice Hargreaves (nee Liddell) who lived in the village in the 1860's. She was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carol author of Alice in Wonderland. It is believed he based his stories and images on Alice Hargreaves.
We went down to the Bournemouth Pier where there was a small fair. Sharon wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel. It was about 4.00pm and had a nice sunset to watch as we went around. At the pier it is also the beginning of all the Christmas lights which you can follow all the way up to the Ice Skating pop up bar and Christmas markets.
Sharon's foster brother Paul joined us Christmas Eve for two nights so we could spend Christmas together. It had been five years since we last saw him and was great to catch up. Paul wanted to spend time down the beach. It was the perfect opportunity to take the pooches for more beach walks. The weather was great over Christmas. We drove to Poole which is at the southern end of the local beach. We were not expecting the crowds of people down on the beach Christmas day. It didn't matter what direction you looked people were everywhere. There were more people on the beach Christmas day than I have ever seen at a beach in Australia. We were told boxing day would be even worse.
On the 27th of December we took the dogs to the northern part of the local beach called Hengitsbury Head. Another nice day with plenty of people walking their dogs. It was only 5 degrees but a comfortable temperature for walking. So far England's winter may seem cold by what the thermometer says but is far less chilly than one of our winter days of 13 degrees. There were plenty of people taking advantage of the weather and using their jet skies. It just is not what I expected an English winter to be like.
We took the pooches to numerous areas within a one hour drive. Swanage was one day. It is on the coast about 45 min drive from Bournemouth. We originally wanted to go to Corfe Castle. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be anywhere to let the dogs run free. Once again just driving random places we came to Swanage. The village is set into a small bay and had a great beach the dogs could run free for a couple of hours. We had a late lunch of Fish & Chips on the foreshore before heading back to Bournemouth.
We have taken the pooches to the New Forrest a few times. The best place for them is at the arboretum which is enclosed by a fence. It is one of the few places we did not have to worry about them running away. We have taken them on some very long walks over two hours. It certainly keeps them quiet for the rest of the day. Even sometimes into the following day.
Another trip we took was to Salisbury. We were here over 10 years ago in summer. It was full of colour with all the blooms. I think this is what Sharon was expecting again. Winter is still nice but definitely lacks colour. The pooches didn't mind they had new areas to sniff around. On the way back we drove into the New Forest again to let the dogs run free.
We left Bournemouth on the 14th of January after the family arrived back from their holiday the day before. We caught the train back to Waterloo Station London then more trains to West Drayton. We expected to find a Taxi to take us to our accommodation at the Hyatt that is on the edge of Heathrow Airport. There were none to be seen. With no credit left on the phone we had to stop at a pub for a beer to get free wifi. The hardships of when you don't have functioning technology in your pocket. After a beer and Prosecco we took an Uber to the hotel.
Tuesday morning there is a free bus outside the hotel that took us to Terminal 2 to catch our flight to Berlin. The flight left on time and arrived in Berlin to a dark drizzly afternoon. Once the jet had parked we needed to board a bus to drop us of at the arrival lounge. We went through customs and received our second only stamp in our passport. Picked up our bags then ordered an Uber. It was a 9km drive to the hotel. Booked into the hotel went to our room. It had only been 45mins since we disembarked the jet. That's Germain efficiency for you.
We looked for ways to reach our hotel by using the hotel shuttle service. They wanted $150 Aus to drive us 9km. The Uber was $28 Aus. We could of caught a bus which dropped us near the hotel but that required cash which I didn't want to get any Euro's out since we were only in Germany one night.
We met Matthais in the lobby of our hotel at 7.30pm and went for dinner and a few drinks. We met Matthais in New Zealand on the Stray bus. It was a great night and to bed at 12.30am before having to get up at 6.30am to leave for the airport for our next leg of the journey to Singapore.
When we arrived in Singapore we had to go through immigration pick up our bags go through security again. We asked on the plane if we needed to fill in a immigration card. We were only transiting through the airport. We were informed by the staff on the Scoot Jet we didn't need to. After a long wait at immigration and finally reaching the end of our queue we were told we had to fill in the form. So back to the end of the line. One hour and forty five minutes after landing we finally got back into terminal 2 with a very grumpy Sharon with only 10 mins left to get on our next plane to Bali. I wasn't looking forward to Bali. Last time we were in Bali 7 years ago it took us two hours to get through immigration.
When we did arrive at Bali, immigration took about 2mins and once our bags arrived we just walked through customs into Bali. Amazing.
That is it. It is all over. Even though we have been travelling around for 20 months both of us could easily keep going. I do believe we have made the right decision to stop our travelling. When we spent time with Matthais reminiscing of the time we all spent together in New Zealand it was quite clear that when one of us mentioned an event with each other it took a while to recall where we were.
Our month stay in Bournemouth has been the longest. It's been nice to be somewhere permanently for Christmas and New Year. Just like last year when we stayed in the Lower Hut area in New Zealand. We had use of one of the families cars. Another Mini Cooper S. Which Sharon would put on the top of her new car list next to a Jeep Wrangler. Everything is walking distance from the house whether it is shops, beach or parks. It is great having use of the car as we could take both pooches with us and explore further away areas.
One of the first places we drove the dogs to was the beach. The beach is only 2km away from the house. The length of the beach is 16km. To explore all of it having a car makes it a lot easier. It is a sandy beach which most UK beaches are. The only pebble beaches we have seen are those closest to France or whats called the Jurassic coast. The beach is wide with a promenade below the cliffs. One thing I did not expect to see were cows grazing on the cliffs. They have all the colourful beach huts with a couple of piers and many shops.
We also went out to the New Forest area. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror. It is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England. One of the first villages we went to was Lyndhurst. We parked at the visitors centre and picked up some maps. There was free parking for that day. We then walked the dogs to the end of the village. Here there were plenty of open ground for them to wander. We could not take them off the leads at the beginning of the walk because of the cow's, horse's and donkey's. We needed to get passed these obstacles first. Both dogs thought the horse and donkey manure was a smorgasbord of flavours.
Lyndhurst is a nice village and is known for two famous people. The first every Australian should know. Arthur Phillip who led the first fleet to Australia in 1788 and our first Governor. He had 30 acres of land in Lyndhurst who along with his servant Henry Edward Dodd learnt the farming skills essential to set up a new agricultural colony in New South Wales.
The second well known person was Alice Hargreaves (nee Liddell) who lived in the village in the 1860's. She was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carol author of Alice in Wonderland. It is believed he based his stories and images on Alice Hargreaves.
We went down to the Bournemouth Pier where there was a small fair. Sharon wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel. It was about 4.00pm and had a nice sunset to watch as we went around. At the pier it is also the beginning of all the Christmas lights which you can follow all the way up to the Ice Skating pop up bar and Christmas markets.
Sharon's foster brother Paul joined us Christmas Eve for two nights so we could spend Christmas together. It had been five years since we last saw him and was great to catch up. Paul wanted to spend time down the beach. It was the perfect opportunity to take the pooches for more beach walks. The weather was great over Christmas. We drove to Poole which is at the southern end of the local beach. We were not expecting the crowds of people down on the beach Christmas day. It didn't matter what direction you looked people were everywhere. There were more people on the beach Christmas day than I have ever seen at a beach in Australia. We were told boxing day would be even worse.
On the 27th of December we took the dogs to the northern part of the local beach called Hengitsbury Head. Another nice day with plenty of people walking their dogs. It was only 5 degrees but a comfortable temperature for walking. So far England's winter may seem cold by what the thermometer says but is far less chilly than one of our winter days of 13 degrees. There were plenty of people taking advantage of the weather and using their jet skies. It just is not what I expected an English winter to be like.
We took the pooches to numerous areas within a one hour drive. Swanage was one day. It is on the coast about 45 min drive from Bournemouth. We originally wanted to go to Corfe Castle. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be anywhere to let the dogs run free. Once again just driving random places we came to Swanage. The village is set into a small bay and had a great beach the dogs could run free for a couple of hours. We had a late lunch of Fish & Chips on the foreshore before heading back to Bournemouth.
We have taken the pooches to the New Forrest a few times. The best place for them is at the arboretum which is enclosed by a fence. It is one of the few places we did not have to worry about them running away. We have taken them on some very long walks over two hours. It certainly keeps them quiet for the rest of the day. Even sometimes into the following day.
Another trip we took was to Salisbury. We were here over 10 years ago in summer. It was full of colour with all the blooms. I think this is what Sharon was expecting again. Winter is still nice but definitely lacks colour. The pooches didn't mind they had new areas to sniff around. On the way back we drove into the New Forest again to let the dogs run free.
We left Bournemouth on the 14th of January after the family arrived back from their holiday the day before. We caught the train back to Waterloo Station London then more trains to West Drayton. We expected to find a Taxi to take us to our accommodation at the Hyatt that is on the edge of Heathrow Airport. There were none to be seen. With no credit left on the phone we had to stop at a pub for a beer to get free wifi. The hardships of when you don't have functioning technology in your pocket. After a beer and Prosecco we took an Uber to the hotel.
Tuesday morning there is a free bus outside the hotel that took us to Terminal 2 to catch our flight to Berlin. The flight left on time and arrived in Berlin to a dark drizzly afternoon. Once the jet had parked we needed to board a bus to drop us of at the arrival lounge. We went through customs and received our second only stamp in our passport. Picked up our bags then ordered an Uber. It was a 9km drive to the hotel. Booked into the hotel went to our room. It had only been 45mins since we disembarked the jet. That's Germain efficiency for you.
We looked for ways to reach our hotel by using the hotel shuttle service. They wanted $150 Aus to drive us 9km. The Uber was $28 Aus. We could of caught a bus which dropped us near the hotel but that required cash which I didn't want to get any Euro's out since we were only in Germany one night.
We met Matthais in the lobby of our hotel at 7.30pm and went for dinner and a few drinks. We met Matthais in New Zealand on the Stray bus. It was a great night and to bed at 12.30am before having to get up at 6.30am to leave for the airport for our next leg of the journey to Singapore.
When we arrived in Singapore we had to go through immigration pick up our bags go through security again. We asked on the plane if we needed to fill in a immigration card. We were only transiting through the airport. We were informed by the staff on the Scoot Jet we didn't need to. After a long wait at immigration and finally reaching the end of our queue we were told we had to fill in the form. So back to the end of the line. One hour and forty five minutes after landing we finally got back into terminal 2 with a very grumpy Sharon with only 10 mins left to get on our next plane to Bali. I wasn't looking forward to Bali. Last time we were in Bali 7 years ago it took us two hours to get through immigration.
When we did arrive at Bali, immigration took about 2mins and once our bags arrived we just walked through customs into Bali. Amazing.
That is it. It is all over. Even though we have been travelling around for 20 months both of us could easily keep going. I do believe we have made the right decision to stop our travelling. When we spent time with Matthais reminiscing of the time we all spent together in New Zealand it was quite clear that when one of us mentioned an event with each other it took a while to recall where we were.
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