Driving up the access road to the On-In site we were greeted by rear views of Moosette and Yumi grunting and groaning behind their car trying to push it up the loose gravel that followed the first few metres of asphalt, whilst a local worthy sat in the driving seat seeing how much rubber he could burn off the front tyres. As the queues of chariots built up behind, Erika arrived and shouted at everyone, parked her car in the spot we were eyeing up for Moosette's sledge and disappeared up the road with the two furballs.

Anyway, it all worked out in the end and we all trundled up the road to join the rest of the pack. In due course, the GM called the proceedings to order and the Hares to explain. Nine checks were announced, with 4, 6, 7 and 9 holding. The main discussion then centred around which of these was up in the banjyang. Meanwhile newcomer Bryan was asking loads of technical questions of the GM who, plying the trade that he does, hadn't a clue how to answer. He should have been asking about the aesthetics of the way in which the paper was laid rather than the number of bits in the average blob. First paper was a bit back down the road, as was Check 1, and then we were off over the ridge, through the pines and down to Check 2 at the stream. Kent found the trail from here, followed by Keeled and Towed, but was soon caught out when he took the walker's trail from Check 3.

Holding Check 4 was up the hill and along the road where a leaky BigJim was one of the last to arrive, and a sneaky Shiva the first to depart, long before the Hare had arrived to set us all free. Check 5 was hidden in a little valley, and was a sneaky back check that fooled Grumble, Rotter and me. The three of us decided to stay up the hill, but eventually spotted pack way below at Holding Check 6. The honest two returned, but Grumble stayed up (and there's the photographic evidence to prove it!). Whilst we were awaiting for the last dregs of the pack to be swept up by the Hare, the Walkers passed by below well within abuse-shouting distance.

From here the trail led down but some of us (well, me anyway) were smart enough to realise that the real way was up and carried on through the false trail, heading in the direction of the beer. Holding Check 7 was at The Lao Mandatory Big Tree, followed by the lovely (Mandatory Lao) run along to The Mandatory Lao Check (8) in The Mandatory Lao Banjyang and finally Holding Check 9 with the walkers at The Mandatory Lao Big Tree And Temple above the On-In. Despite all these being so Mandatory, I managed to find all of them and most of the paper in between! (It was the GM who started all this Mandatory Lao bit, not me).

Since it was only a hop and a skip down to the On In, everyone arrived back in the space of a few minutes and got on with the main business of the day.

The Hares were soon called on to explain themselves, but there was not much to explain and they were soon awarded a fantastic nine-point-nine. Virgin Scott, who has been here for 3 days and we think was brought along by Gnhasher, was then welcomed in the traditional manner.

Almost everyone in the circle ended up getting a down-down, so I'll restrict this to the notables (i.e. the ones that I can vaguely remember) and not bore you with the humdrum.

Thanks to Towed Under for the snacks and to the Hares for a great, if familiar run. Let's just hope that next week's turns out anywhere near as good.