Fortunately for my fear level, we decided to cycle to the nearby village of Lyndhurst through the New Forest. It was used as a hunting ground by King Henry VIII. We went along a gravel track for the first section of our journey. The forest was beautiful, with ivy growing up the tall deciduous trees. Then we hit an area that had no tree cover and, due to the rain the night before, was a huge mud puddle. We walked our bikes through that squelchy mud for quite a time and Jayme vowed we would be returning home later on the road (to my dismay).