Hash 492 – Goddard Arms @ Clyffe Pypard

This was one of those near perfect hashes – lovely views, not too hilly, good weather, a view of a White Horse and great company.  However, it’s true to say that it did not get off to the best of starts – The Goddard Arms has sadly closed and we arrived to find a barrier across the car park, so we drove all the way through the village and back again before finding a place to park along the narrow road. Anyway, eventually everyone had found somewhere to leave their car and we gathered round for Viv’s talk.

Then we were off! ….at the first ‘V’ in the road some went on past the church but couldn’t find the trail, Sue ran down the hill a very long way before she had to run back as the trail had been found through the churchyard after all.

There were more walkers than I’ve seen on a hash for a long time – 15 I think, and around 10 runners so easily a couple of dozen of us altogether.  It was lovely to have Brian & Jackie Reed back with us.

We followed a narrow path which opened on to a couple of crop fields before coming to a road junction where Viv was waiting to make sure we took the  trail on the right through some woods.

The start & finish were the same loop, so to avoid confusion, Viv had waited for us to go through before laying the return trail from this point. The trail began to climb and before long , we were rewarded with lovely views for miles. Don’t ask me what we were looking at, as it was cloudy and I had no idea in which direction we were heading.  I was very excited to see a White Horse cut into a distant hillside.

Brian’s email had warned us to bring sticks and to wear trousers as the path was overgrown.  As it happened, the walkers route wasn’t particularly overgrown, but thank you Viv for the warning about sticks as this part of the trail through woods was thick claggy clay mud which would have been impassable without the support of a stick. Annie and Kathy decided to head off on a route of their own which looked deceptively less muddy but then had to be helped back up on to the path by David.

On our return walk through the fields towards the church, a look back was rewarded with another even better view of the White Horse.

One of the things I really liked about this hash was that we walkers seemed to keep together as a group. Perhaps the slow walkers are getting quicker while the faster walkers are slowing down a bit.

We enjoyed a very convivial après hash at The Crown, Broad Hinton. As the very large rear garden had been taken over by a large group of bikers, we rearranged the tables in the front garden and settled down to our chips & beer.

I don’t remember the horn being awarded, but I nominate David for his selfless assistance to those of us who found the mud & hilly bits hard going.

Thank you Viv and John  for a most enjoyable hash, taking in  lovely views, plenty of flour, good weather and a lot of mud!