In order to accommodate the overworked pupils and teachers at TBS, this week’s run site was set to be reasonably close to the school. The run itself, however, did not stray as far from the school as last week’s. The acquisition of a large trampoline for the two remaining Towed offspring had left little available space to call the circle to order, and so it was that the Master and the Hares had to give the run briefing whilst having a quick bounce, if you’ll pardon the expression.

An uncertain number of checks were announced, either 8 or 9, with number 3 holding for the runners (incorrect – it was 4) and 6 (actually 7) for both runners and walkers. False trails as usual and the possibility of river crossings were also threatened. The instant confusion of the announcement of “first paper that way, then right” that saw the quicker members of the pack head off in completely the wrong direction was soon resolved and the pack headed off down the usual hill to the usual check at the road. A false trail from here fooled a few, notably Night Owl, Keeled and Hurry K before virgin Phil found the true trail heading off towards Chobar.

Check 2 was a little way down the valley from where a relatively silent Rotter led the pack swiftly to Check 3 at the foot of the hill. A steady climb up took the pack to Holding Check 4 at the temple above Chobar. Not too sure who led the pack out of this one but at some stage before Holding Check 7, Shrivelled wormed his way to the front of the pack. Here, at the temple below Sano Khokana, the runners and walkers met up and, indeed, followed the same trail down by the river and the Ghat to Check 8.

Whilst the walkers headed pretty well straight for home from here, the runners were taken back down to the river and up towards Khokana before cutting back to Check 9 to meet up briefly with the walkers again. At least some of the pack met up with them. The more myopic, such as Rotter who had completely missed the paper as we rejoined the main trail, also managed to miss Check 9 and almost missed the trail looping up towards Khokana before heading up the bottom of the valley on a fairly thin trail.

Check 10 was a big back check which saw Grumble, Keeled and a few others heading towards Bungamati whilst Rotter, for once not so gullible, picked the right trail almost straight away. It was then a fairly short trek up out of the valley on back to Towed Hall.

The trampoline was forsaken for the roof and the circle was soon under way before darkness set in or everyone got too cold!

The Hares were flattered with a score of 9.9 before virgins Joanna, Phil and Andreas were then welcomed. Joanna finally found her way to the hash after years of being in Kathmandu; Phil, after two and a half years (and about two weeks before he leaves) took time out from his UN duties to grace us with his presence and Andreas is here to learn stuff about cutting down trees and killing wild animals from the environmentally aware Grate Dane.

Other down-downs were awarded to:

Some serious debate followed about next week’s run and what special occasion should be laid on for the celebration of Run 1350. Night Owl confused the issue by announcing that it would also be HHHH 25th Anniversary on the 15th October. Eventually the logical decision was made to postpone Run 1350 to the following week and have Run 1351 next week at Godavari Resort.

Thanks to Mrs Rotter and Towed Under (well, Raju really) for the snacks and thanks also to the Hares for a truly wonderful run.