Photos by Donga (including Donga's Rambo trail scan)

Hash Notes by Mudman

Co Hare Bruised Willie arrived at the car park at two minutes to five with the remnants of a bag of shred under his arm. He informed us that the short walk would be 4 km. the long walk around 6 to 7 km. and the Rambo trail 8 to 9 km. We were warned about several pieces of barbed wire, which had all been clearly marked with tape, and fresh paper, as he'd just laid it!

Soon after the start the paper veered to the right and we came across a small FT sign hung in a bush. The walkers had caught up with us and found the correct trail went straight ahead. 

For the first couple of kms. the paper was, to put it mildly, a bit sparse, but only a few strands are actually required to indicate direction so it worked fine. My theory is that Bruised Willie with one big bag of shred under his arm, knowing that time was a bit tight, was determined not to run out of shred at 7km. into his 9km. "spread" and so took it easy at the beginning. He also introduced us to a CAH3 "first", that being "pixie checks"!! These consisted of two twigs, about the size of milk straws crossed over each other, with around 15 pieces of shred beneath them. These would have been fine to draw the attention of pixies, elves or fairies, but we only figured out they were actually Hash checks when we ran out of paper beyond them!! However we dutifully laid out the limited shred in the correct direction, once On On was called. 

The trail meandered through pleasant bushy areas, and beneath some very large and beautiful old trees with plenty of shade. I also remember running through a mango plantation, and amazingly for a local Hash, can't remember seeing a pineapple, another "first"!!

The trail was well marked with shred as we progressed further, and came to the first split off to the left for short walkers. I'm pretty damn sure that Bruised Willie's mention of a 6-7 km long walk had put the fear of god into most of our "seasoned" hashers, so most of the wimps turned left!!

Anyway it was pleasing to have the company of a good crew of Rambos, as we continued through bush and woodland to the long walk Rambo split. I was becoming extremely tired at this point so can't remember too clearly the exact sequence of events. 

One thing I do remember is that the checks definitely did their job, and kept all the runners bunched together. On a couple of occasions FRB, myself and Cock in a Frock had circled 360 degrees out to some distance without success, before finally spotting the shred. Then Cock in a Frock and myself would head off thinking we had the jump on FRB, only for him to come flying past, before very long.

There was a long steady hill climb section, which initially gave us views south towards Soi 102 and the coast, and then at the summit excellent views east out to the coast and north to Cha Am. There was a very difficult check on a hillside in woodland, which held us up for about 10 minutes, but fortunately Donga had a wrist contraption that gave us a rough idea of the direction of the car park and the paper was finally found down the hill a bit. Further on, following the shouts of front runners, I wandered off paper, and Lucky Me followed. Slime was not far behind, and told us in no uncertain terms to back track and look for the paper - the golden Hash rule!! We soon found paper, and the latter part of the trail involved some easier running paths. FRB made it home a few minutes before the rest of the runners, but the rest of us were all home within 5 minutes of each other, after being out around an hour and forty minutes!

In summary a very varied and scenic trail, well laid and quite demanding for the Rambos.

On On.

Mudman.

The Fake Hare's Story by Cathusalem also welcoming esteemed visitors

Further Hash Notes by Cathusalem

Feedback from the long walkers and runners was that the checks were difficult but kept people together, which can be seen in the photos. However, clearly I failed to impart to Bruised Willy that the idea of putting plenty of paper under the sticks was for the front runners to deposit it on the correct trail as an extra indication to using the sticks as an arrow. Anyway, nobody got lost and all were back within a reasonable time. Trail distances were about 4km for the short walk, 6km for the long walk and a Rambo of 9km. The first highlight of the circle was Donga's down-down song for the Hares, with words appropriate to what's described above. We had a christening without too much deliberation of name choosing. FRB's daughter Nina, "from this day forth and forever more", will be known as Chicken Wings. FRB himself was down-downed with both the "Leaving on a Jetplane" song and FOYC. We hope he'll soon be back with us, then we can give him more abuse. On On!

Trail scan and notes by Tinks