There they stood in the pouring rain at the end of a long, wet, muddy and memorable hash run and walk. Most were soaked and didn’t mind the heavy precipitation. In one particular case the rain drops fairly bounced ‘off his head’ and a few others were visibly shaking with the cold (Trouble included). One or two others stood primly under their umbrella’s having changed into dry clothes (the Silent Man) or had left early fearing collapse due to exhaustion or hypothermia.

Shobha did her best to shield the ‘hash snacks’ with her umbrella but the crisps and brownies ended up also ‘getting soaked’. The GMiss arrived last, guided in by Jimmi, looking very much exhausted, and managed to conduct a ‘circle of sorts’. This scribe cannot remember the score given or what occurred, except it must go down as one of the shortest and best-mismanaged circles in recent years. Then most hashers headed off to Restaurant 1905 to recuperate.

The GM and KO were absent  - how did they know to stay at home and how did this sorry state of affairs occur?

It all started with the roads being ‘blocked’ to the on-on site. This was obviously a deliberate attempt by protestors to frustrate the hash, but it did not succeed. Maybe a few hashers did not make it through but, hassled and late, a good number of hashers arrived and headed off on the walk and the run in the wet and slippery conditions.

Shobha and Tikku took the walkers. Initially all went well as Jimmi (Hare 1) ran the false trails under the direction of Trouble (Hare 2), who was often seen at a distance laughing and then disappearing off to appear further along the trail. Many hash crashes were seen but the mud covered hashers were soon to be ‘cleaned up’ as the rain started to come down and the streams became raging torrents.

Trouble gleefully directed the hashers across and back these raging torrents without risking himself. Jimmi disappeared in the muddy waters only to appear way-down stream (he proudly announced that he had not lost has hat) and the GMiss, ‘Nice Hash’ and Sweet Cheeks had one almighty joint ‘hash splash’. One ‘clever hasher’ brought his cell phone and wallet on the run! Eventually patience was lost with the ‘smiling hare’ and he ended up swimming for his life as he was unceremoniously dumped by fellow hashers in the rapids.

The trail headed out northwest and did a circuit back to the on-in through the flooded paddies, slippery climbs and descents and in one case across a death defying narrow and very slippery ridge. A very challenging and memorable 2 hour run with the walkers getting in a few minutes before the runners. Vanecock looked dry and clean so one must assume the walkers did not suffer the traumas endured by the runners.