#318 - Report - 12/02/06 - Jan Chow, Ned Wanoa,

The gloves are off!!! Ride 318 had been billed as, I quote, “…something a little more sedate to entertain you this week. Virgin (but enthusiastic) hare Jan able assisted by the wily old fox himself take us to a new starting point”. After the heavy ride in Malaysia this was meant to be the come back ride, possibly a recovery ride to restore our faith in the institution of hash – and all that it represents? Obviously the hare did not read the script? It all started so innocently, a new pleasant starting location, a nice sunny day (oh how that proved to be an unwelcome ‘nicety’) - so pleasant that we had one of the best turn outs ever (certainly outside of a celebration ride!). Where did they all come from? Best Dengue came back from Sakhalin, Patrick Mortler came back from 1992, Band Aid Bill came back from being busy or was it just the ironing? (private joke), we even had Greg Wood in a rare appearance (after nine months he probably feels it is safe to come back to the hash now [after booking a ride as hare, not turning up and dropping all the Kiwi’s in the sh*t!]).

We should have guessed, our senses more alert to those early signs - NO CHECKS. Like the charge of the Light Brigade “on into the valley of death we rode” not quite to our death - but not far from it for some people! One back check in the first hour is not quite ‘International Hash Standard’ (refer to attachment) by a long stretch of anyone’s imagination? At the time we though it must have been a ‘bad hare day’ – it was only three hours later after a 35km epic that we realised that the reason for no checks was so that we could get round the whole trail and home before it got dark!! A monster of a ride. The pleasant morning sun had turned into a scorching, no shade, no breeze, burning heat that bore down on the pack as we cycled ever further North - with many wondering how we would cross the causeway without our passports!!! I am sure there are more than just a few of us with a bright red rosy glow in the office this morning?

As Murphy’s Law dictates “if it can happen it will happen” so it had to be the day when we had more virgins then ever before – welcome virgins (how many of them will we see again I wonder?).

Despite the length and no checks (…well three in three hours) we must thank the hares for the massive epic – the hash equivalent of Ben Hur I think? It is not easy laying a trail and as Singapore continues to shrink (the riding bits anyway) it becomes ever harder to find ride-able areas – saying that we could probably make two rides with checks out of yesterdays trail! but serious though, thank you hares, we do appreciate the effort.

Enough, enough I am now going to stick my neck right out on the chopping block and announce that the next ride (5th March) will be a nice, flat easy ride………….??????? Starting from Punggol Marina it can not be anything other – right????? Watch this space?

On On

Barbarian

Grand Master