Southampton 2023 - A geography field trip (Day 2)

 

On the first full day of our holiday, we had planned to meet Nicole’s sister in the afternoon / evening. Therefore, we decided to venture towards the New Forest. Nicole suggested going to Hengistbury Head, which is a sandstone headland that forms part of the Christchurch Site of Specialist Scientific Interest. It is home to an abundance of different birds and other wildlife, and features breathtaking views across Christchurch Bay, the Isle of Wight and Bournemouth. We had a very pleasant walk along the headland and down onto the spit which features lines of beach huts. As it was a very hot day, it was unsurprisingly busy, but we managed to find somewhere to sit to eat our picnic. We didn’t want to sit for too long due to the risk of getting sunburnt, so we soon headed back and into the visitor centre. This featured a very interesting exhibition that tells you all about the history of Hengistbury Head, the wildlife and the future planned work on conserving the headland.

Once we had filled our heads with knowledge, we had an ice cream from the Hiker Café, which is situated at the main car park where the land train also runs from for those that would like to get to the spit but struggle with walking for too long. This café sells a variety of flavours of Marshfield Ice Cream; all of the flavours we tried were very tasty. The day we chose to go to Hengistbury Head happened to be one of the days of the Bournemouth air show, therefore as an extra treat, we were able to sit and eat our ice cream whilst watching aircraft fly overhead as part of the show.

We finished the day off by going to The Rising Sun Thai & Pan-Asian Restaurant. This was a beautifully decorated restaurant that was perhaps slightly more on the posher side than we usually go for. However, I guess everything down south is a bit posher and more expensive than it is in Lancashire! We started by sharing some vegetable spring rolls and gyoza, both of which were delicious. I then followed this with one of the specials which was a salt and pepper crispy chicken dish. This was very tasty, but, despite saying on the menu it was milder than a thai red curry (which I often find too hot), it was incredibly hot thanks to a huge amount of chilli! Nicole went for a safer option of vegetable massaman curry and rice, something that she always enjoys. We would definitely recommend this restaurant, but would want to prepare you that your meal won’t be cheap!