Anyway, it was pleasing to see that despite the weather plenty of innocent hashers had found the office car park that was location of this month's on-on without too much problem. And we already knew that KY (brave lass) would be following up about half an hour after the rest of the pack due to a certain loss of car-keys...

Co-hare Serge (yet-to-be-named - three Austin hashes and another three Toulouse Hashes under his belt already... so a naming will be in order soon!) was already covered in an impressively thick layer of flour before we'd even taken a step - did this bode ill for the rest of us?

Possibly it did - since we weren't even five minutes out when the whole pack (including FRBs) were running around a park like headless chickens, searching for the elusive way out at the first of many, many, many tricky checks that the gang of hares had so kindly deposited for us.

After ten whole minutes (and having scoured about a square kilometre), one of our FRBs finally stumbled upon an arrow by the tower on the other side of the lake from the circle - so the pack could regroup and move on at last... to find the next check lurking just a hundred metres further on!

This quickly turned out to be the trend, with another check a hundred metres later (a bridge over a stream) - then another hundred metres (road crossing the stream), then the long/short split, and then another check (junction and path)...

At this point, with ET striding off in the direction of home, the first drops of rain started falling - so it was with great relief that we passed the bikers scrambling up and down the sandy hilltop (another check) and arrived at a welcome beer stop for a few moments. Here we could take a moment to quench our thirst and pull on our raincoats. A quick phone check with KY revealed that she hadn't got lost and was happily keeping pace a little way behind the rest of us.

After setting out again on the last leg through the woods, the rain softly pattering on the hoods of our coats, we gamely proceeded through another barrage of checks to find ourselves heading back past Lycee Victor Hugo towards the car park we set out from an hour and a half earlier.

Time for a damp on-in... where we held not so much a circle as a clump, due to everyone trying to keep between the cars holding the booze & snacks and a small porch offering the only shelter from the rain within a hundred-metre vicinity.

Since Grand Master Scrubber was in absentia, yours truly gave himself a down-down for the rain, then again for using his right hand. This was followed by an unusual six-fold down-down for the various hares (Dairy-Queen and multiple friends and relatives) - with a repeat for setting far too many checks! Overal about an 80% thumbs-up approval rating, however.

The charming Scots clan joining us for the first time followed for their virgin down-down... then, just in time, KY showed up for a congratulatory water down-down (where's the wine? she asks...) before joining us in a quick verse of the Hash Hymn.

And despite the weather, a good time was had by all.

Look forward to seeing you all again in April where hares Blowhard & Up All Night promise us... something - they're not sure what yet.

On-on! Bob-a-Job (RA)