All right on the Isle of Wight

Cycling UK's New Forest Cycling Week has been running for over 40 years now, firstly based at Roundhill campsite near Brockenhurst, now situated at Avon Tyrrell Outdoor Activity Centre near Bransgore. It brings together families, couples, single people and groups from all over the country to enjoy the simple pleasures of camping in beautiful and peaceful surroundings with led rides and organised activities for all age groups.

This year's week included the traditional Thursday excursion to the Isle of Wight, which my 19-year-old daughter Ruby and I decided to join. 

Being both veterans of the New Forest Cycling Week, the trip brought back many happy childhood memories for Ruby of sunlit, carefree days exploring the woods at the campsite with the friends she and her brother Louie met every year - many, like them, regular returnees - and wonderful bike trips for crabbing at the beach at Keyhaven and enormous cream teas at Annie's famous tea-shop in the middle of the forest.

My memories are centred more around the terrible weather we seemed to encounter every year - famously waking up one year to find that I'd been sleeping on a bed surrounded by water! - and feeling more like a refugee than a holiday maker.

Nevertheless I, too, associate the New Forest Week with a sort of whimsical nostalgia for simpler, easier times when the only thing (apart from the weather!) to stress about was how to keep the New Forest ponies away from the food and whether or not we had enough marshmallows for toasting. A gadget-free existence where we hunted for early blackberries in the hedgerows and woke to the noise of frying sausages and bacon rather than a radio alarm clock announcing the latest horrific news.  

So it was with some trepidation we joined a group from this year's event on the short ferry ride to Yarmouth from Lymington. In the past, a group of around 60 riders used to ride the 5 miles from Brockenhurst to Lymington but as Avon Tyrrell is a lot further away, now only around 30 or so make the journey. I wondered if the magic of the New Forest Week would still be there - the sense of escape from the 'real world', the chance to relax, chat and exchange memories with old friends, the sheer joy of riding a bike with like-minded people in lovely surroundings - or would the sense of wonder have been replaced by the feeling that one should never go back, that my daughter would be bored and missing her sophisticated urban existence and its associated gadgetry. 

I needn't have worried, of course. Not only did she enjoy the ride on her newly-acquired trendy old-fashioned road bike, she longed to revisit all the destinations of childhood: the mythical-sounding Boldre, Ornamental Drive, Sway, the Reptiliary, Exbury Gardens and Lepe. Is it a coincidence that she now adores Harry Potter having spent so many childhood holidays exploring the ancient woodland around these places?  Even the tourist trap of Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight is a bit like a land that time forgot with its 'kiss-me-quick' atmosphere, sticks of rock and holiday makers wrapped up in plastic ponchos trying to shelter from the drizzle. 

I'm sure everybody slept very well that night, tired out from the excellent combination of sea air, great food, exercise, friendship and fun."

Julie Rand, Cycling UK 

A few familiar faces were in the group ride that set off from Lymington along a disused railway track to Freshwater Bay. Michael, the ride leader, has also been coming to the New Forest Cycling Week since he was a youngster and has taken on the responsibility of leading rides himself now. Another rider used to come with her children who have now grown up and are working, but she still comes on her own as she enjoys it so much.  

A new generation of parents were in attendance with their young children, some of whom proudly rode their own bikes whilst others were in trailers or on the back of tandems and trailerbikes. The riders, like the general population, also included some with obvious disabilities and no doubt some with less obvious ones.  All enjoyed the short ride to the bay, where in time-honoured fashion, the skies darkened on our arrival and the rain started. Never mind, a nearby cafe provided a welcome retreat before we set off to Alum Bay, where some took a boat ride out to the Needles whilst others hiked down to the beach. 

Another short but hilly ride took us to a place I'd never been before: Fort Victoria Country Park, where the sun finally shone and we could look across the Solent to Hurst Castle and the New Forest in the distance. The children enjoyed riding around with the wind in their faces whilst the grown-ups took in the view and snacked on flapjack and bananas. A final leg took us back to Yarmouth and the ferry home to the mainland, where the traditional fish 'n' chip supper was consumed on the quay side at Lymington before the long trek across the forest back to camp. I'm sure everybody slept very well that night, tired out from the excellent combination of sea air, great food, exercise, friendship and fun. 

It's wonderful to think that in an ever-changing world, the New Forest Cycling Week stays more or less the same every year, with its winning and timeless formula of friendly faces, lovely days out and informal leisure rides still appealing to both old and young, and those in between. Ruby and her brother both want to go for the whole week next year!