Monday 15 September 2008

A Rambo kind of morning

Anna and I are hares at the Hash in two weeks time. That means that we will be the ones who lay out the trail for that week.
We do the Hash in different sites every week and even if you are in a familiar site - the trails vary and there are so many to choose from in the jungle here, you will never do the same Hash twice. All the members of the Hash takes turns to lay it and you are usually two or three people doing it together.

Laying the Hash involves laying out a trail of paper all along the route. Every now and then, 3-4 times, you will lay a "check". It means, that the trail of paper will all of a sudden stop with a big pile of paper, and the runners will have to walk about in different directions to try and find where it continues. There is allowed to be a gap of 150-200m, so could take a while to find the "on paper" route again. These checks are designed to keep the pack together, since some are running and some are walking.
The Hash for us women should take about 45 min - 1 hour for the runners, and a maximum of 1 1/2 hours for the walkers. If it's any longer than that, they risk coming out in the dark, which is ok, but not preferable.

Today we went for a 'rekkie'. We have chosen our site, and this morning we went in to see which trails we were going to use. Equipped with some phone book paper that we laid out so we will remember next week, when we are doing a 2nd 'rekkie', where to go; and machetes, to hack our way through the more jungly bits. We really had to channel our inner Rambo!
Since I am a "virgin hare" (= it's the first time I lay a Hash), we will do another 'rekkie' next week. Then we will time it properly and make sure we have all the checks in place etc. Then on the day of the Hash, we will be laying it properly just a few hours before the Hash horn goes (in case it rains, you can't lay it too far in advance, the paper will dissolve and you don't want anyone getting lost in the jungle in search of paper!).
It was a bit different to be in the bush all by yourself, instead of together with about 40 other hashers. Little bit scary, but at least we found our way out again!

When you are a hare, you also provide the food for afterwards. Anna and I will of course be having a bit of a Swedish theme to our hash but I wont reveal what yet, in case any of the other hashers are reading this! It should be a great hash though!

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