14 hounds turned up on a threatening afternoon. Danny took over beer guarding while the other 13 headed up the trail. The prize for inovation goes to LAO LOVER and MRS. LAO LOVER who brought along two FURRY LAO LOVERS who kindly towed them up the hill. The trail soon leveled traversing the north side of the ridge to check one. After a lot of shouting finally somebody went up and found paper leading to the ridge top and then down to holding check 2 at the pass. Most of the pack continued the traverse. Paper then headed level on the motor road to the next pass. A few runners took advantage of a passing truck but were not seen by anyone in authority. By now it was raining steadily, dimming hound vision so the hare had to stand on check 3 to prove it was there. Several hounds checked for paper in the shelter of a school building but finally ROADRUNNER found paper on the lower road traversing the west side of the ridge. The hare offered the LAO LOVER PARTY and FINGERINTHEDYKE a short cut but with a lot of loyalty and little wisdom they turned the offer down, to suffer a steep climb to the ridge and check 4. That's the last we saw of ROADRUNNER who continued north on the ridge and miraculously got back to the beer before everyone else. In the process he skipped holding check 5 so was correctly (again) awarded the HASHIT. Earlier the views from the top had been great but now hounds were getting out of temper, so they scampered down the east side of the ridge to the short-cut trail and on to holding check 5. LUKE, TORSTEN, CHIP-N-MARY

were charging ahead by now. Only SUBODH held back enough to be shown paper again going straight down through streams, rice fields and mud slides, and then up to backcheck 6 on a jeep track. CONDOM MAN II led the pack back on the road which returned them to the chariots and the beer.

FURRY LAO LOVERS are a great help on the uphill sections but tend to pull even harder going downhill. They would dearly love to be free to take on chickens, ducks, goats and other dogs. Wisely this was not permitted.

The rain stopped as the pack straggled in. Damp shirts shortened the circle. The HASHIT was awarded as noted above. Various mud patches on shorts were ignored, given the conditions. This was going to be a dry run!

The happiest creatures in the valley were many well fed leeches.

We missed several runners, but the enlightened local runners know the weather patterns during the week before Indra Jatra. One cannot blame them for being wise. However . . . the day AFTER Indra Jatra, the opening day of the South Asain Federation Games, will be a perfect day to run and to welcome SLOWDRIP back for a visit.