Making the first hash use of the new road from Baisepatti to Kokana (that has featured for years on the GM’s web map), this run was able to penetrate the depths of the jungle to the west of the Bagmati. Sadly, due to the nature of the run instructions, the lateness of their issue and the possibility of an “oh no, not another Towed run” attitude creeping in, there was a relatively low turnout. Not by popular demand, the GM was back at the helm, the Maobadi in the west displaying a keen ability to judge character and rejecting his attempts to visit their territories.

The trail headed off to an almost immediate check where some judicious re-laying of paper by the local kids caused degree of confusion but things were soon back on track and the pack headed off to Check 2 by the temple below Sano Kokana. The trail then led downstream alongside the beautiful Bagmati, past the ghat and to Check 3 – a back check designed to slow the FRBs down a bit (it didn't’t. The buggers just ran straight through it and found their way to the seasonal bridge by another route. Meanwhile Heme found the real trail and led the rest of the pack across the river and to Holding Check 3. The walkers, having taken a more direct route to the bridge, were already there.

Pausing briefly to allow the pack to savour the aromas and to allow Hurry K, Shrivelled and his mate Paul to catch up, “check it out” was soon called and Run Crafty led most of the pack off in completely the wrong direction, with Rotter eventually finding the trail and calling them all back. The trail led north along the river bank before turning west and, via Checks 4 and 5, up to the Dakshinkali road at Lamagaon. Following the road down towards the Leper Hospital the trail headed briefly back up to the main road through the forest and Check 6 just south of Lamagaon. Not too many made it to this check, Rotter, by the sound of things, having found a shortcut through to the trail back down from the road.

Holding Check 7 saw the runners and walkers together again. Some complex instructions were issued by the Hare at this point to the effect that there was no paper between here and Check 8 so all had to follow flour for a while. A couple of the running pack opted to stay with the walkers from this point so it was only around a dozen ventured on to the full run. Knowing best, as usual, some of the more venerable hashers headed from Check 8 at the Leper Hospital straight for the suspension bridge only to be called back when Hurry Krishna and Naren, with a little help from the Hare headed off to the south on paper. Eventually all were recalled (to the surprise of the Hare); Check 9, another back check, was run through by most but all found their way eventually to the new suspended bridge across the Bagmati. Rotter, unlike Run Crafty, Grumble, Shrivelled and his mate, was not fooled by the back check – not bothering to go that far and heading straight for the new bridge instead.

Check 9 caused only brief hesitation and from here it was back to the On-In by a slightly meandering route across the valley (where Yoshi, Aki and friend finally caught up with the runners) and up to the outskirts of Kokana, before heading down to the cars.

The Hare was awarded a 9 point, but not before Towed Under had been castigated for not letting the run be at Dakshinkali. There was little comment from the pack on the run – its amazing how polite they can be about such a crap run.

Virgins were from Japan and Australia. If I grasped it correctly, Takao from Tokyo was visiting Yoshi on business – probably the Komatsu rep visiting JICA to ensure this year’s allocation was all tied up (not that us Brits are upset about the demise of tied aid in Europe!) and Paul from Oz was claimed by Shrivelled as a relly (for those readers not acquainted with the Towed patois, this means familial relation - GM) and, somewhat bizarrely, that they shared the same appendage.

Others invited into the centre were:

There then followed a remarkably erudite statement from Shrivelled to the effect that he had, for the past three weeks, been sent to Hash Heaven but returned to HHHH by the Great Grand Master in the sky as a punishment (not sure who for, really) to visit the Worst Grand Master in the World.

Continuing the tradition established last week of awarding the Hashit for vehicular offences that had occurred during the previous week, this week’s award was made to the GM for failing to breach the Kohalpur Barricades. One would have expected a true Scot to say something like “Oot ma’ way, ya wee Maoist nyaff”, given him a Glasgow kiss and carried on.

A final thanks is due to Mrs. Rotter once again for the hash catering and to Lazy Towed for stepping in to help with the haring.