We headed north along the short stretch of dual carriageway towards Otford, and met T671 scurrying towards Sevenoaks pretending to be a train. Otford offered no opportunities for photos, despite its picturesque pond and palace, and we pressed on past the Station and on along the road down the Darent valley.
Beyond Shoreham Station, up on the hillside overlooking the lavender fields and the Darent valley we stopped for a "photo opportunity". The sun shone, the skies were blue, the fields were green or yellow, the bus was green: magic!
We reboarded, and continued down the valley. We passed, playing tag with the railway, passing under it again almost immediately, then agfain at Eynsford Station. We passed through pretty Eynsford, and drove on down to Farningham.
Colin decided to do the Farningham turn-round anticlockwise, so we went up to the by-pass and round the village to enter from the north-west end. At last our Farningham destination blind was pointing the right way! (It was a short-working from the Dartford end only). We pulled up on the bridge.
For the next run we were going to Shoreham Station, a short-working destination for the Dunton Green participants on the route. Not surprisingly this was not on the Swanley destination roller. So Colin and Alan went upstairs to change the blind for a Dunton Green one, a peculiarly difficult job with the blind being down below the intermediate blind.
With the new blind in we boarded and set off again, up to the mixed bus and coach stop at the south end of the village, which still has a London Transport concrete post with both sets of finials.
Then we were off again, turning south along the Darent valley to Eynsford, where Alan pointed out the wisteria flowering on the shop front.
We went on up to Shoreham Station, where Alan pulled into the station yard and turned the bus.
The blinds were turned to Dunton Green for the garage run, and we set off back through Otford to Bat and Ball, where we turned right under the railway bridge to Riverhead. Another right turn took us onto the road to Dunton Green. We went past the old garage site, and right up through the village to the roundabout at the foot of Star Hill in order to turn, and drifted back down through the village to stop in the bus layby at The Dukes Head, opposite the buildings that now occupy the Dunton Green garage site.
Where was the RF? Phone calls determined that it was at Brasted, which it had reached by the narrow lane past Emmetts Garden from Ide Hill. It was on its way back via Chipstead as a 413B. This was the route variant that operated for only three weeks when the Westerham Branch was closed, to cater for season ticket holders, and up until now was only GS operated! Eventually it appeared from the Sevenoaks direction, and went on up through the village to turn.
Photos were taken of the two buses together. Another of Ham's double-deckers went past heading for Orpington. It was time to go home. We reboarded the two buses, and headed back to Sevenoaks Station.
I left the buses at Sevenoaks Station - the RF still wearing the rail replacement 413B blind - and went in search of my train. This took the form of West Kent Buses' T671, "Penny", which unfortunately had the staircase blanked off. So it was downstairs that I rode to Otford to catch the first of a series of trains back home to the North-East. It had been a marvellous day.
Many thanks to the Country Bus Rallies team for putting on this most enjoyable day.
All photos by Ian Smith. Click on most of them for a larger picture.
Part 1: Getting there: Rail Replacements
Back to Ian's Bus-stop
Part 2: RF633 on the 413A
Part 3: RT3148 on the 401