The New Forest

This weekend was a long weekend off from school. Not because of the US holiday, but because of teacher conferences (kids don't attend school on conference days). We decided we would drive over to South Wales - 1) because we haven't been there yet and 2) because L is doing a family history project and we believe both sides of his heritage originated from Wales.
As you would expect, when driving out of London on a Friday afternoon, you encounter bad traffic - but yesterday was HORRIBLE. There was traffic everywhere. It was "choc-a-block"!!! SO, knowing that our whole journey should have taken 2.5 hr to drive - imagine our frustration that we were only 45 miles away after 4.5 hours. There was wreck after wreck and since they don't have frontage roads in this lovely country, there is no where to go except to wait on the road for them to clear the wreck. UGH!!! We bailed on South Wales and came back home for the night.
Anyway, this morning we tried a new destination and went down to "The New Forest" for the day. We'd heard really nice things about it and decided to give it a shot. It's about 1 hr drive away and I'm so pleased we went.
Out for a walk in the New Forest. (really a clearing in the forest!) The New Forest is actually very old. Established (and named) around the time of William the Conqueror about 1,000 years ago. It was protected land that the king could hunt on. They established laws several centuries ago that allowed the commoners to have access to open pastures and those laws still apply today. These are some types horses we came across beside the road today.

Mainly there are wild horses roaming free - over roads, through back yards, in the parking lots, etc. It is kinda crazy to see. The cars just have to wait for the horses to get out of the road. We came across at least 50 horses or so on the roads in just one afternoon. It really backs up the traffic and the horses are in no hurry to get out of the way. Even though the horses are wild, they are all owned "by a commoner" whatever that means.
B, being giddy over horses, had a ball. We toured in the car for a while and then got out and walked. You're not allowed to touch or feed the horses, but B wanted to get closer to them than we could in the car. We were standing by the fence when 2 feisty, wild horses came running full blast around the corner. Scared me to death. We watched them and realized they were the bullies of the neighborhood, charging at the other grazing horses and making them all run off.
These are the bully horses. As I was jumping on the fence, DA was snapping a photo.
We saw lots of deer in one area. A huge buck and about 15 others in his herd.Bonus that we choose a sunny, autumn day enjoy the fall color of the leaves.
So, the weekend wasn't a total bust - no Wales to check off, but the New Forest was a good substitute.
We laughed at this slug and beetle having a war over some droppings. The slug was huge - at least 3" long and that little beetle was not intimidated at all. No wonder all my flowers get eaten by the slugs, they're like monsters!