Sun, cider and a slip

After Lullingstone, we went on to the village of Farningham. The original intention had been to go to the pub in Eynsford, but the crowding there on the way out to Lullingstone persuaded Luke to take us the back way to Eynsford instead, not that it turned out to be vastly less crowded. The temperature, at around 20 degrees, had flushed out every English family in Kent, it seemed.

On our way to Farningham, we passed the ruins of a castle.

In the village we met the second challenge: finding space to park anywhere near the Lion Hotel. Eventually, after much shuffling back and forth to allow seemingly three lanes of traffic on a single lane in and out of the parking areas, we got a space at the back of the pub.

It is certainly a beautiful area in this kind of weather!

While Luke took the children down to paddle in the ever-present Darent River, I went inside to get two bottles of ginger beer, a cider, and a lime and soda. I needed a tray to carry them.

I crossed the seating area immediately outside the hotel door, bearing my purchases before me. I saw a step down to the river bank area where many family groups had found places to sit. Assuming that it was a regular 7" (178 mm) step, I stepped down as I normally would, though I couldn't actually see the step through my carefully held and heavyish tray.

Would that it had been only 178mm! The extra depth, however much it was, threw me -- in fact, nearly off my feet! I landed safely though slightly jarred, but the two glasses landed on their sides, open towards me. A gush of liquid soaked my shirt, singlet, trousers and underwear! -- and got a fair bit of my camera as well.

Despite desperate attention with a barely used handkerchief, when I tried to switch my camera on, nothing was happening.

I think this is the final shot I took before that calamity:

It's a view along the roadway through the centre of the town and across the Darent River.

I was moping somewhat, worried about the cost of camera repairs, the feasibility of having it done while travelling, the cost of a replacement camera... it didn't strike me at first that I could still take reasonable photos with my mobile phone.

Eventually I worked it out, but only got a few extra photos.

 This looks like part of a mediaeval bridge, but is probably an early modern cattle grid constructed to look like part of an ancient bridge.

This last is a view down the main street towards the centre of the village:

By the time we were almost back home, the camera viewfinder was working again, and, that evening, the shutter began working as well. We were back to photography!

A couple of buttons are a trifle sticky still, so I think Foto Riesel might get a visit early in April...