Hash #7

Hash number 7 - Date Tuesday 6th March
Location : Manaton

It had been raining hard and this morning I woke to find the river where I lived was flooded, did this make me wonder whether I should be going out in the dark, running around with the possibility of being washed away....erm No. I was as keen as ever to go hashing and off I went out of the house. I had to move my husband's car out of the way before I could go which meant I was five minutes late picking Karen up, but we arrived in Manaton with a trail of hasher's behind me in the car! Oops. I don't like driving fast when I don't know where i'm going.

We arrived to a clear sky and impending dark clouds overhead, is that possible? Anything in Devon is possible. We were ready in double time and just as we got out of the car it started to rain, I donned my hat and we waited for the instructions for the trail.

And we were off (minus Four Sips who was at home nursing a poorly tooth, she was there with us in spirit though!) We managed to stay with quite a few people this week, the path was a river and bumpy, stoney and nobody was going very fast. We came to the first long/short split and although I was tempted to turn long just to see what happened, Karen and my better judgement took over and we went with the shorts. I spent the first part of the trail looking for marks on the right, which is where they normally are and not seeing them, then Karen informed me that we had been told they were mostly on the left with some on the right...mental note, pay more attention next time Ruth!!

It was all too soon regroup and for the first time in ages or ever probably we were at the regroup with everyone else and had sweets and everything, fantastic. Then we were off again, it was now that things started to get a little stressful for me. The rain had stopped and with the hills going against us we were at fast walk pace and my glasses started to steam up. It wasn't too bad on the road where my feet were fairly safe, it was a little trickier over the field especially diagonally and on a slant but I coped. The problem came when I tried to get over some boulders and streams and rivulets of water and in between the boulders was what can only be described as amazing grade A shiggy. I put my foot down and it disappeared into this shiggy up to my knee, this led to an imbalance in my weight so I put my hand down onto what I thought was a stepping stone only to find that disappear into the shiggy as well. I luckily stopped just as my nose came level with it. Several more times into the brink dear friend and out the other side I was covered in black muddy stuff. I stopped to wipe my glasses so I could see where I was going and with a concerned look from Karen we continued.
We went up and up and then went down and down slipping and sliding all the way, it was a bit blowier up the top though and my glasses were finally demisted and I could see again.
We arrrived back at the car park and I stripped out of the muddy clothes and into some clean ones. Then off to the Kestor Inn for a drink and the down downs.
We still haven't got our nicknames and I think I will protest if we don't get them before we reach Hash #10. I was reading in some hashes they get their nicknames after 5 hashes. Or should I be pleased that we haven't done anything really stupid to earn a hash name? There was a suggestion that we should be Tweedledee and Tweedledum. So any suggestions?
Well another successful Hash, a little muddy, a little wet, a lot of fun.
Till next time On On