Following the stunning accolades given to last week’s trash by the GM it is difficult to find the necessary words to adequately follow in Steffan’s erudite and witty footsteps. Nonetheless I’ll try to do it in less than three pages and to a similar, intricate level of detail, knowing that you’re all now agog in anticipation.

Being at least 400 metres beyond his house, and therefore definitely out of bounds, Griot managed to get lost on the way to the run which, it has to be said, had a few familiar bits in it from the run he set in the same area not 2 months ago. His excuse was that the directions were wrong and the site described was some 300 metres further west and on the opposite side of the road. There were a few other late arrivals from the north side, who had a bit further to come.

We set off to the south with The Fox leading the way down into the valley and Check 1 on the road. From here the trail turned north along the road and then down towards the river where Check 2 was to be found. A couple of well laid false trails fooled Grumble, Sideways, Towed and another who were absolutely delighted to hear “Holding” being called from the opposite side of the valley some 5 minutes later. The miserable pack did not wait for these intrepid trail blazers to arrive, and buggered off in the direction of Check 4, somewhere above Yogi’s waterfall in what is now becoming a standard location for any run in this area – almost as guaranteed as Lao Lover’s check by the wallow in the banjyang above Pyataar.

Holding Check 5 was further west at the end of the track down from Ramkot, and Check 6 simply even further along the trail towards Ramkot. This was a back check from where The Fox found the way, having been left behind on a fruitless search at Check 5, heading up towards the main road again and Holding Check 7 close to Griot’s holding check 8 on Run 1356.

From here we meandered back through Checks 8 and 9 to the On-In, arriving some 10 minutes or so before the walkers, in a very sensible hour and 20 minutes or thereabouts. Highly unusual for Yogi Hare who normally takes the pack on a day trip to Dhading from this area!

Once the walkers were in and everyone was suitably refreshed, the formalities could be commenced. The only significant event in the circle, after the Hares had been awarded a nine point something for the run, was the unanimous award of the Hashit to Rotter for the spectacular trousers. This fell amongst some puerile posturing by the GM and down-downs being given to virgin Ashish, returnees (including young Griot and two of the three Hares), latecomers Chris, Griot, Kail, Walk Crafty and Tibetgal, Towed for accidentally finding all nine checks, leavers Moira and someone else (who clearly won’t be missed!), Fred for being too noisy, people with naked nees, Lao Lover and his Lover for the dead dog and pretty well everyone else in the circle for a variety of perfectly unjustifiable reasons!

A final thanks is due to Handphun for the mo-mos, Mrs. Rotter for the other hash catering and brilliant aloo, Towed Under for the rum punch which, since Keeled Over wasn’t around was sampled by at least 15 more people than would usually be given the opportunity, and to all three Hares for a good, well set run.