And walking back towards Wayne from the Cemetery I take some precarious shortcuts over sandstone cliffs and ledges, 20, 30 feet above rocks, clinging to crumbly handholds, stepping cautiously onto tiny 6 inch ledges, over slouched, cracked overburden that hangs just waiting to fall, it's stupid, and so having made it across safely I resolve to take the road back...
Safely making my way to the road, a disused affair blocked off on both ends, from the cliffs I could see it was abandoned, obvious washouts and sinkholes, but it beats edging along cliff faces, and after that it seems a stroll down a country lane. And looking at the rocks along the cliff as I walk down, some good ironstone beddings that look promising for fossils when...!!!
...I come to, I've fallen into a sinkhole, walked straight in, a washout hole in the middle of the road, obvious, if you were looking, obviously I wasn't, lying down upon my back I've fallen 10 feet, 2 steel culverts on either side of me, broken, dark, and rolling over in pain I see that if I'd fallen just a bit further to my right the hole extends past the reach of sunlight...
Bruised, but nothing apparently broken I find leverage climbing on the culverts, scrambling and pulling out tufts of grass manage to haul myself to the ground, pain, my leg feels - well, not broken, but definitely torn and sprained, hobbling back down to the town...
2 days now, the right leg aching and unable to bend, extend, and only briefly walk upon it, the left leg is bruised, my shoulder slightly torn, nothing broken, but the other injuries now making themselves known, the pain of my right knee, flex, extend, contract, painful when moving, when doing nothing, but it really could have been a lot worse...
And i have to laugh, of all the places misfortune could so deservedly find me it's on the unexpected country road, the quiet and uneventful walk home...