Run: 1695

Venue: Batsi, Island of Andros

Date: Saturday 29th May 2010

Hares: Beep-Beep and Squeaky

Scribe: Fair Cop

 

 

 

 

There are, of course, no rules on the Hash. There are, however, a couple of maxims which should always be considered; "Don't check downhill" for one, and "Don't volunteer" comes a close second. A couple of days before we left for Andros, surrounded by T-shirts, booking forms and checklists, a vaguely familiar voice came on the phone: "Hi, this is Beep-Beep. We've just moored up at Batsi. Is there anything we can do to help now that we're here?" A schoolboy error, I had him. Before he realised his mistake, he was the hare for Saturday's run. As it turned out, this was one of the best decisions of the entire weekend.

 

The pack assembled sometime after the 2pm official start, minus the hashers who decided that an afternoon on the beach was more like a break than running up hills in the midday sun. Those who did make it were Black Mamba, Prickly Bush, Mad Dog, Stormin'Norman, Fair Cop, Beep-Beep, Wet Dream, Hamish McTavish, and Shunt. Squeaky set-off with the walkers, while the runners disappeared into one of the narrow alleyways around the port.

 

The hare had found a route that took us through the town, and onto the hill behind. A spot of shiggy, and we were onto one of the walled tracks that criss-cross the island. A few checks and we were heading up a dried riverbed full of bright pink oleander. I believe that it was around this point that Shunt lost his breakfast in an upward direction for the first time (he would later provide two repeat performances, before losing more in a downward direction as an encore).

 

The trail continued up, before reaching an unfamiliar chalk mark: "CB12". As we checked back 12 marks, we found Stormin'Norman, who had inside information and avoided the long falsie. Seconds later, we looked back to see Rowed Runner catching us up. She'd started late, found her own route, and was putting our fitness to shame. By this time, Shunt looked like he was about to commit the heinous crime of expiring on trail, but was saved by a cool fresh spring, which was guarded by nothing more than a pair of angry geese. Once he’d cooled down, rehydrated, and recovered his glasses from the pool, and in the absence of further drama, we headed down.  After staying together for a full 2 hour hash, we found the on-in, and proceeded to get split-up by the choice of lengthy, unmarked, alternative routes home.

 

Down-downs for the beach babes, Hamish's 250th run, Shunt's survival, Beep-Beep's on-in, and the Oxymoron memorial down-down for late arrival to Rowed Runner. Wet Dream for leaving her Andros T-shirt in Athens, and others  for various offences.

 

On-On

 

Fair Cop