Those arriving at the site right next to the SKM Hospital were greeted with the sad tidings that the GM was under the weather, The Fox and Keeled were elsewhere (but where was Keeled? He only came back last week) so yours truly, Towed, was designated as the Stand-In Master for the day. This was a site that no-one there could remember having used before, so could be considered as a new Hash adventure.

At the usual hour of 15.10 the circle was called to order and last minute conscript Hare, Night Owl plus even more last minute Co-Hare, Tibet Gal, were called in to explain what was about to happen. Eight checks were announced, with 4 and 6 holding, river crossings and false trails a-plenty and a return to conventional HHHH trail marking. First paper was off to the west behind the Hospital, where it transpired that crucial signs were missing:

The first calls, on discovery of the paper, were greeted with screams of alarm from inside the hospital so Hash Hush was called for by the front runners, but largely ignored by those in the rear. The muddy trail through the trees to Check 1 was merely a foretaste of things to come. From Check 1 the trail led towards the Manahara Khola and a long loop leading back to a track that Towed had been conveniently checking out whilst Rodent and Lost Ark were laboriously following the full trail. It was therefore Towed who arrived first at Check 2, by the road. The wise ones checked across the road and eventually paper was found leading on and up northwards to Check 3 at the approach to a small settlement.

Here the confusion started. Our innumerate Hare seemed not to be able to tell the difference between the check number and the number of circles he had to draw. The pack, therefore, saw three circles and treated this as a holding check, amidst mutterings about "where the hell did the other check go as he said it was Check 4 that was the first holding check?" At least this gave latecomers Naren and Ziggy the opportunity to catch the pack. Not waiting for the Hare, "check it out" was called by Run Crafty and others, and we were off and running again. Run C and Towed followed a rather obvious false trail (paper within about 30m of the check), and on encountering the X began to return. However, there appeared to be another obvious trail just below this and sure enough paper was found heading down the small escarpment to the river below.

Confusion here as well, as the paper suddenly disappeared. However it was eventually discovered leading back down the valley by dint of Chris and Cornelius having arrived at that point through following it the wrong way. Cornelius led the way back, showing an unnerving ability to run uphill that was reminiscent of our late lamented Fast Forward. Holding Check 4 was finally discovered at a small temple back at the top of the escarpment, from where the runners were able to look down on the walkers making their way.
Holding Check 4 could only be a back check, as there was only one way in, so the pack were soon on paper once again. Hurry Krishna eventually led the way after the pack missed a turning off the road, and we eventually found Check 5 down by the river again. The trail from here was straight across and up the other side for a considerable climb, down a bit and on eastward, picking our way delicately through the paddy and to Holding Check 6 on a shoulder above another small river. The rest of the pack arrived shortly thereafter, accompanied eventually by the Hare, and the pack, who had had a little time to assess likely trails from this vantage point, were invited to check it out.

Paper was eventually found by Chris and Towed, despite them having initially set off on the wrong trail. At a crucial junction some way down the trail, paper was found leading off to the left. Two small and rather insistent boys were in attention, offering help to the pack to find the trail. Paper led as far as their house but then seemed to expire. With memories of relaid paper from Tadpole's Farewell Frollick, I left the rest of the pack to sort it out and followed the clearly wise Steffan straight up the major trail to find paper restarting a couple of hundred metres from the junction. It later transpired that the small boys had been suitably bribed by the Hare to lead the pack into oblivion and an obscurely sited Check 7.

Having completely lost contact with the pack by this stage I have no idea what happened to them. Meanwhile Steffan and I followed a smooth trail into Sankhu, missed seeing Check 8 in the village, and caught up with the walkers making their way along the road before being diverted down towards the Manahara Khola by Tibet Gal and on to a particularly muddy In-trail.
Full marks to the Hares for getting everyone back at more or less the same time, the gullible rest of the pack following the two intrepid FRBs home within 10 minutes or so, along with the walkers.

The circle was soon called to order when it was realised that numbers, already depleted for some reason, were rapidly diminishing with the usual early departure of Run Crafty and his cohorts along with a couple of others. Before the remaining Hare could be called in to face the judgment of the pack, however, three rebellious Belgian miscreants had to be dealt with in order to establish a rare discipline in the circle. An offer of twenty three point twenty, made by the Stand-In GM was not challenged and stood as this week's award.

The Stand-In GM then invited Socksucker, as a responsible member of the Rotter family, to explain the run destructions - in particular the bit about "turning right about 0.5 km before you get to Sankhu". How, the S-IGM wanted to know, could one tell when one was half a kilometre from anywhere when one hadn't yet arrived there in the first place to know where it was? Socksucker's flippant answer was not accepted and the appropriate punishment was meted out.

Once again, the Norwegians took centre stage from this point. Two virgins, Rutt and Ola were welcomed in the traditional way. Rutt is here to do something else on Lost Ark's project (probably fix it or close it). Last week's evaluator was clearly too stunned by what he had found to make it to this week's run.

Next up was newcomer Margaret plus the smallest hasher of the year so far. Since she's here to work at the Norwegian Embassy, let us hope that all the new support allows Handphun to return to a more normal Saturday afternoon.

Other awards were to returnee Etienne, leavers Rodent (unfortunately only for a month - will we ever be rid of him?), Thierry, ?? and ?? (the GM is unable to help with these names as the requisite marks have not been made on the Hash List), and finally crashers Sock Sucker, Lost Ark and possibly another.

The request for hares for next week's run met with no volunteers so once again The Fox was nominated in absentia. I'm sure he will relish the opportunity to lay what should have been this week's hash next week.

There then followed a brief debate on the award of the Hashit. The Grate Dane wanted to award it to the smallest Hasher in sight for crapping on the hash - Hashit for a Hash Shit. However, the debate moved on and Night Owl eventually talked his way into it through his efforts to get Towed to award it to himself (I'm not a daft as the real GM).

Thanks to Mrs Rotter and Tibet Gal for the excellent snacks and thanks also to the Hare for a truly memorable hash (as can be detected by the length of this narrative).