You know that life is truly awesome and that you live in a wonderful city, when you’re out and about, trundling along in your powerchair, and you turn a corner to see four men dressed as medieval knights in full armour, riding horses and carrying lances. That’s exactly what happened to me yesterday afternoon: I was pootling along in my powerchair, and I thought I’d go past Eltham Palace and down King John’s path. It’s a pleasant route I take fairly often as the path runs between large, ancient fields on either side. There are often horses grazing in the fields, and there is a fantastic view across London.

Yesterday, though, something unusual was going on. I could hear something was afoot as I approached the path: crowds cheering and a man speaking over a tannoy. Then, as I turned the corner into the footpath, I found four horses in front of me, each with a guy in full shining armour riding it. I couldn’t believe my eyes at first, but instantly decided it was something to blog about. The ‘knights’ were being lead towards one of the fields, where I could hear a crowd had formed.

I had obviously stumbled across some kind of event. Following the horses, as I got closer to the field I could see there were a lot of children in the crowd. This was obviously some kind of medieval-themed jousting show run by Eltham Palace. Interestingly, you can tell that jousting actually took place there because one of the nearby roads is called Tilt Yard Approach; I just didn’t expect to encounter it yesterday.

I didn’t go into the field because I didn’t want to get my chair muddy, and from the path I couldn’t see too much so I didn’t stay long. From the sound of things, though, people were having great fun, with crowds cheering, trumpets sounding and hooves thudding. After a few minutes I continued on my walk, remarking to myself how incredible it was to suddenly come across a medieval jousting tournament.