| Date | Hare | Scribe |
|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul 2026 | Jeremy | Keith |
So much going on isn’t there? It seems every time there’s a hash, our time could be taken up just chatting about significant events since the last hash; a new prime minister, the serial heat-waves, 300,000 evacuated from wildfires, Anne Widdecombe’s murder, the football World Cup third place for England, Iran war turned hot again, and on and on. Chaos seems to be the new normal. And there was potential for chaos today too.
But before that, we were grateful that at least temperatures had dropped to something cooler than the extreme heat we’ve seen over the last month. And, we improved our running contingent by 100% today compared to the last hash by having two runners (Viv and John) instead of one. Progress! Jeremy was our Hare today but otherwise would have been a third runner.
He began the briefing well, cheerfully and confidently addressing the throng of eager hashers before him, with a well worked plan for hash trails offering a choice of 5, 4, 3 or 2 miles! There followed a plethora of questions about the trails, especially when Jeremy disclosed he had met the North Wilts hashers also laying a trail today, which overlapped ours. And, that there was old hash flour lying around from an old trail… And as if that wasn’t enough, he had switched to/from a darker wholemeal flour from Fortnum and Mason partway round. What could possibly go wrong?
He remained cheerfully resilient as questions about the trails followed and how to differentiate between them. There was an answer for each question and after what seemed like an eternity, we set off to find our way.
I remember a trail Jeremy had laid from nearby South Cerney in 2018 when the North Wilts hashers were again also in the area as well as the ‘IndoNostalgia’ hashers – see hash mag 550. And they say lightening doesn’t strike twice.
Today we all walked initially along the old canal towpath towards Cerney Wick but soon split, and a number of us chose the four mile trail, accompanied by our hare, which gave us confidence, though he hung back a bit so as to not make it too easy for us.
The trail rounded a lake and then meandered beside a shady stream until we reached the busy spine road, and waited to cross. (Reminded me of Frogger – ever play that?) In the soft breeze, the shade of the trees, and warm sunshine, the trail was lush, well used and a pleasant walk.
We crossed the road without getting splatted and passed a busy watersport lake and cafe, where Jeremy and one or two walkers, left us.
We, four of us, continued, following flour, as we headed towards South Cerney. Just as we reached the edge of the village, half the runners passed us (well, John) and we began to lose confidence in our route, as flour wanted to take us yet further away from our start point, which seemed to us would be too far for a 4 mile trail. Whose flour was it we were following? Ours? North Wilts? Or were the Indo- whatsits back?
We followed the flour for a while though until we reached the main road again in South Cerney and decided not to continue heading in the ‘wrong’ direction, as we might still be out there if we had. Instead we retraced our steps towards the start point, joining up en route with walkers (Mike, Ainslie) from one of the shorter routes.
It was all very pleasant following the trail today though quite whose trail, or which option we followed I’m not too sure!
All good, nobody was actually lost despite the potential complications, and we were back in around 90 minutes. We thanked Jeremy for his efforts, as we sat under a canopy outside cooling off. The bags were awarded to ..me.. for having got lost, apparently.
I wish Jeremy good luck if he should lay any more trails around there, that he doesn’t have other hash groups there on the same day. Can’t happen a third time can it?
Another memorable hash enjoyed by us all. Thanks Jeremy!