Run	Date	Hare(s)	Description	MapRef	1:50000	1:25000	1:10000	Aerial
680	2010-02-28	Dr Blood & Pink Flamingo	Charlton Sawmills	SU886127

You would have been more comfortable sitting in your refrigerator where the temperature is the same and it is not raining and it is not windy.
Nevertheless a few mad souls turned out, partly to subject their bodies to the abuses of the weather and partly to observe the state of the hares who had been engaged with the elements since dawn.
Needless to say Mussolini who is still soft from his time in warm Kiwi Land did not show up with the Hash-it, well not in time to run that is.
Malibog, visiting from Stockholm considered it to be a nice warm morning.
The rain was easing off as Can Man gave us his usual history lesson while we waited for Bika to get his togs on and Flash tested his weatherproof camera.

Charlton is famous for being home to the oldest documented fox hunt in England (1670s), on the first hunt the fox got away, hence the name of the "local".
The hares did not say much, they were too tired and cold, so we started looking for trail in every direction. First they toyed with the pack, using a falsie up the path to Counters Gate, past a huge smouldering aromatic pile of sawdust that resembled a semi dormant volcano.
Then a falsie up the steep path to Levin Down kept yours truly and Canman occupied while the rest found the true trail along the 1k, into the wind, and flat path to Singleton with Bika being the FRB.
We spent a while in the playground there, Soapbox having a great time on the zip line, weeeeeee. The hares offered us the choice here, between an easy way in and another dose of exposure.
Yes, you guessed correctly, we opted for the path further north over to Collick Copse, where for a short while the trees offered us some shelter.

The pack spent some time looking for non existent flour in Lady Wood thinking the way home must be in that direction only to find to their horror that we were bound for Drovers and then all the way to Nightingale Wood.
There was a bit of muttering going on about how we had already been out for an hour but nothing serious and even Dogwhistle seemed to be enjoying herself by finding a lovely shortcut in the woods.
A bit of a long slog then took us east over to Burntoak Gate and then south to a regroup by the wooden sign commemorating the old hunt.

Now the pack soon found the familiar path home around the eastern side of Levin Down and reached the On-In after a testing one hour and fifty three minutes. Treefeller had even managed to finish the Sunday papers, we had been out that long.

There was very little hanging around, Mussolini had been (and gone) and delivered the Hash-It so we voted to award it back to him.
A big thank you to the hares for a nice long run in extremely difficult conditions.
Then over to the Fox Goes Free not to chill out.

Bambi.
P.S. You, yes you, need to think seriously about whether or not you want to go to the hash in France (687) and make your desires known to Paul (Dr Blood), see the notices.