Fresh strawberries in the Devils Punchbowl

Continuing with our day trips outside of London Stuart and I decided to take a drive to the Devil's Punchbowl in Surrey. Before we got there though we decided to grab a picnic, the freshest picnic we could find!

We headed to the Crockford Bridge Farm so we could pick our own super fresh strawberries. As we entered the field the smell was overpowering. It was a divine, heady smell of hundreds of beautiful ripe fruit. I think there are two people in this world, those that eat the fruit in a pick your own, and those that wait until they have paid before they tuck in. I am definitely in the latter group, and was outraged to see so many people snacking down in the fields. I can see why they couldn't wait though, the smell was enough to make me want start the picnic there and then. However being a stickler for the rules I decided it would be worth waiting. We wandered up and down the plants looking for the perfect strawberries.

To add to our picnic we then headed into the raspberry fields. There weren't as many ripe raspberries as strawberries but we kept hunting until we thought we had picked all the suitable ones.

Crockford Bridge farm is a lovely place and worth a visit. I noticed lots of families in the pick your own fields, showing their kids where fruit and vegetables come from and how the plants change as they grow, which I though was cute. They have different items available depending on the seasons, and we will definitely head back in the autumn for blackberries, corn on the cob and pumpkins. But back to our summer picnic! The farm also has a garden centre and farm shop so we popped in there to grab a few bits to compliment our fruit. Then we jumped back in the car towards the Devil's Punchbowl.

The Devil's Punchbowl is a natural amphitheatre in Hindhead, Surrey, and is part of the National Trust. When we arrived, having spent all our cash on strawberries, we didn't have any change for the car park. Whilst trying to see if the cafe nearby would break a tenner for us we got talking to a lady who works for the National Trust. To cut a long story short she recommended we joined the National Trust to get free parking and free entrance to a range of locations across the UK. As we're planning to get out and explore Britain more we gave in and signed up there and then! I think it costs us about £10 a month, so we've got to make sure we get out and visit these places to get our moneys worth - so prepare yourself for lots of blogs with pictures of the English Countryside!

Now we were all parked and ready to hike out but we couldn't wait any longer to tuck in; it was time to fuel up and start this damn picnic! The strawberries were delicious, just as we knew they would be. Stuart managed to find one about the size of half his face, and proceeded to dribble it all over himself. The winner of the day though was definitely the raspberries. I've never been a huge fan but these ones tasted amazing. Fresh, sweet and full of flavour - so much better than anything I've grabbed from a supermarket.

Full and buzzing on fructose we were finally ready to go for our walk. Years ago, when I was at uni I used to get the coach from London to Portsmouth, and we would drive past The Devil's Punchbowl. I loved looking out the window waiting to see it and marvelling at the natural ditch/hollow - it's bigger than you expect it to be. Since then, I was surprised to see they have redirected the road my coach took (the A3) so there is no traffic at all. You can now walk all around, or even down into the Punchbowl without the constant roar of traffic. You feel like you are completely isolated and far out in the countryside. And it is a very enchanting place to wander around.

There are different paths marked and you can follow which ever you please. I can't remember which one we took but we walked around for about an hour, stopping only to grab some photos and take in the landscape.

I would really recommend a trip here. It's very peaceful, quite shady (which was very good for the sunny day we had) and you can walk different paths depending whether you want a leisurely stroll, or more of a workout. You probably wouldn't spend a whole day here, but you can stop off at a local pub for lunch, or head over to the Hindhead Commons. As our first National Trust location, I thought it was a great start, and am looking forward to exploring more!