Strewth! Children May Bite At Reuthe's!

Today we decided on a return to Reuthe's, a garden and nursery near Sevenoaks (or as it has rebranded itself "The Lost Gardens of Sevenoaks") which we'd originally visited just after it opened in 2018. It's spread over 11 acres of woodland and has one of the country's best selections of specialist rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias (although sadly we'd not timed our visit correctly to see them in flower) and conifers
The whole site sits at the top of a steep, and it must be said pretty rutted, single track road with only two passing places and I'm not entirely sure I'd want to meet someone coming the other way. Once we'd negotiated the slope and parked the car we headed straight for the onsite Woodland Bistro where we secured drinks and a delicious and very reasonably priced sausage bap. The service is warm and welcoming and the coffee, as we sampled on a previous visit, is great.
The gardens themselves (for which you pay a £3 entrance fee) are if anything more vertiginous than the access road and even we struggled with the ascents and descents (which didn't particularly help my grumbling bad back which has made a very unwelcome return) - this rather sadly means it is almost completely unsuitable for small children or anyone of even slightly reduced mobility which is a bit of shame because it really is in a glorious setting particularly when you get a chance to look out through the gaps in the tree coverage from such an elevated position.
It was quite difficult for photographic opportunities too but there are wood carvings, quirky sculptures (a couple of which can bee seen in my image warning of the possibility of being bitten by children!) and characterful outbuildings and shelters dotted throughout the site. Despite its vertiginousness we still thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Reuthe's and we'll definitely be making a return for another sausage bap and their excellent coffee soon.
By the time we left it was just after lunchtime so we decided to head to the nearby village of Otford for a quick drink. We opted to frequent The Bull (one of the village's two pubs) which we instantly regretted as were charged a frankly extortionate £14.40 for a couple of pints (we'd been charged less than that for our two sausage baps and two drinks at Reuthe's)! A sign outside the pub was advertising the fact that it had recently been refurbished - it certainly felt like we were helping to pay for it!