IT'S A CRACKER!

Dave Barham is forced to overcome a hunting conundrum, with two cracked ribs seriously affecting the way he can shoot

- Dave Barham

What’s the cut-off point, age-wise, from falling over to ‘having a fall’? I’m only 48 and feel too young to tell people that I’ve ‘had a fall’.

Anyway, it’s been three weeks to the day since I had a rather nasty accident that resulted in me cracking two ribs, one at the front and one at the back. I was walking along a shingle pathway at our local pub/restaurant towards the ancient woodland burial grounds out the back, with a view to shooting a quick video for my wife’s sisters to view with the aim of having their Mum and Dad’s ashes buried there. As I walked along the path I noticed that the owner, Murray, had dug another lake and erected a rather pretty wooden bridge over the two, which said pathway led up to. There I was, walking along, phone held out at arm’s length, just about to hit record as we approached the bridge. However, I’d failed to notice the break in the path, where two sheets of ¼ inch rebar grid had been laid to reinforce the path (yet to be covered in earth and shingle. Well, my right foot went under the grid, and of course the natural reaction is to throw the left foot forward in order to stumble and break the fall, but in a nanosecond my left foot was trapped under the grid, too. My forward momentum saw me topple over like a felled tree, no dropping to the knees, a full on ‘TIMBER” moment with arms outstretched, landing with a solid thud on my chest!