| Date | Hare | Scribe |
|---|---|---|
| 7 Jul 2024 | David | Jeremy |
Two weeks ago we had a hash with no hare and a trail with no flour, and it was for many of you an exciting new experience, for which I will of course take all due credit – apologies to Tim.
However, for this hash we were back to normal – well nearly normal as it was one of David’s hashes. Regrettably, attendance was lower than usual and whilst some may think it was caused by the previous shenanigans, I believe the real culprit was the BBC Weather app. It really is quite useless at predicting exactly where and when rain will fall. There used to be an excellent one called Dark Sky that used radar data to show precisely where the rain was and where it was going. As such it was perfect for us hashers.
The bad news is that the Dark Sky app no longer exists, having been purchased by Apple. But that does mean that Apple’s own Weather app now provides the same accurate info.
So whilst many may have been using BBC Weather which was predicting “wet, wet, wet, don’t go out”, the Apple app was instead telling me that 11am was “a good time to go hashing”.
Thus, only about a dozen of us congregated at The Marsh – split roughly 50:50 between walkers and runners – the latter including Tim and Rob from NWH3.
David explained his flour markings, which including two new ones (patents pending). One was a large W with an arrowhead on one end. This supposedly signified a shortcut for Wimps. The other was intended to show the long and short trails merging, with the arrowhead indicating the way forward.
Then we were off, albeit with a slight delay as Hilary undressed in order to present me with the Shorts.
Up Green Lane where halfway we came to a check with no visible trails leading on. Eventually more flour was found a mile away but as no one had called ON ON, it took a long time to progress. On to Upper Wanborough where again the flour vanished, only being located another half-mile away in the churchyard. Again, no one called ON ON. At this point I must admit that I somewhat lost faith with the hare and his ability to lay flour. I awaited around for the walkers to indicate the way forward and lo and behold Mike was the first to arrive. At the same time David appeared on his bike muttering about various inhabitants of Wanborough who were going round with a dustpan and brush clearing up his trail.
Despite no ON ONs we did actually manage to ON ON; first to Ham Rd, down to Lower Wanborough, out towards Hinton Parva, and back to Wanborough. At this point we came across the Merge sign. Unfortunately the arrowhead wasn’t visible, so it was unclear the way forward. Some went the wrong way passing David at The Plough, others the correct way towards Horpit. David had expected to see the Walkers wander past the pub but they never did.
Back at The Marsh we all eventually congregated in the garden. The rain predicted by the BBC never appeared and instead we were looking at blue skies and feeling the heat of the sun. There are no pictures of us in the garden but I’m sure if you close your eyes you can envisage the idyllic surroundings and the convivial time we all had.
Many thanks to David and Sue for a great day out.