A Walkers Perspective by Towed Under (ghost written by Towed)

Following a dreich and dismal morning a very limited number of Hashers gathered at Godavari to be greeted by two out of three Hares. Somewhere along the line the walker's Hare had vanished and the two remaining Hares were singularly soiled and soggy. Since there were so few runners and they were braving such foul weather, acting GM Towed, at Keeled Over’s prompting, declared this a free hash. He soon called the circle to order and a fairly small circle of hardy souls it was. Suggestions of "the walkers could follow the paper until they found The Lost Hare then bring him back"were ignored and Bendy Toes drafted himself in to provide guidance to the walkers. By this time, the rain had actually stopped.

Six or seven checks were announced with some of them holding, possibly two but the Hares didn’t know which two. River crossings, false trails and slippery bits were also announced - all in all a typical Bendy Toes briefing. First paper was back onto the road and straight past the entrance to the resort.
The few runners shot off, leaving me and the Palmers to walk. We were wandering around for a bit and could generally see where the runners were, and were able to shortcut and more or less keep pace with them. Bendy Toes was occasionally seen waving vaguely at us and pointing somewhere.
Meanwhile the runners were being ably hared by Fangio and the good checks and false trails generally managed to keep the small pack together. All in all there were 3 holding checks and as the pack approached the third of these it is reported that high drama ensued. Michael Jackson proved that it is not just juveniles of his own species that he will chase. Sheep and lambs, goats and especially kids are all grist to his mill. Ably assisted by sister Julie, or should that be Janet, he proceeded to chase a sheep into a water filled trench where the pair of them seemingly tried to drown it. At the holding check, the owner of the said sheep complained that it was dying, although the last we had seen of it, it was staggering along on four wobbly legs.

The trail led the runners back across the river and up through the car park of the resort to the On-In. A notable feature on this section was yet another climbing aid to follow last week's abseil rope.

At the On-In the news was tragic. According to its owner, the sheep had died and compensation was required. After some discussion a figure of Rs 1,500 was settled on, but Peter wanted to eat the sheep. A compromise of Rs 1,000 was agreed and the owner could eat the sheep, always providing she could catch it. Smiles and handshakes all round and the owner happily trotted away (a little bit too happily for one in mourning). At that rate, a sheep is worth around 2.5 ducks - someone was fleeced! This settlement did little to dampen Michael Jackson's spirits and he continued to chase anything on four legs for the rest of the proceedings.

With the sun now coming out, the circle was called together and the Hares were asked to account for themselves and their absentee partner. No satisfactory explanation was given and the negative points accumulated. However, plus points for the ladder, the drying of the trail in time for the run and the now visible snow-capped Phulchoki, Champa Devi and Shivapuri area along with emerging views of the full mountain range led to a satisfying 9.9 being awarded. During the run discussion Head Chopper was given a down-down for commenting on the run when he had not even been on it. He was also re-christened Lazy Towed.

Other down-downs were as follows:

Social drinking was declared thereafter and the less than 20 there tried to meet the challenge of eating their way through snacks provided for 60. Many thanks to Unscrewed for the meatballs, pretzels etc and to Towed Under.