The precipitation persistently permeated through a dull grey sky
laden with Atlantic moisture, landing on a die hard band of hashers
who had lost all pretence of remaining dry. Then, toying with our
affection, the rain eased as Panda and Flash told us to look for
chalk (some hope!), plain flour, and pink! flour.
So off we went, looking for white or pink dough and assuming that
there was no point in checking north over the bridge back to the
mainland. After a brief dalliance down the Billy Trail and an amusing
circuit of the lush green field behind the petrol station there was
nowhere to go but over the bridge, although Bika was not convinced,
heading south alongside the main road until he was left well behind.
A fish hook on the Langstone end came to his rescue, with Pink Flamingo,
Dr Blood, Old Faithful, John, and Popeye going back to meet him.
Considering that we would have to return over the bridge (a swim being unlikely)
the hares were understandably keen to usher us away from The Ship and west
on Mill Lane A.S.A.P.
Here the path crosses an inlet with a small slipway, the idea was that we
would have to wade across the inlet to get to a check. Flash is not King
Canute, so the tide had come in as usual and made the wade a swim in murky
oil slicked harbour bilge, which no one fancied.
So we crossed the little bridge, over a falsie, and watched Bika head
south around South Moor and Old Faithful head north on the top of the
concrete pipe. Bika was wrong again, as the rest followed OF through
deep mere in Southmere and Southbrook to emerge at the ex IBM plant,
where Bambi once slaved for a meagre crust.
Now it was urban hashing as we crossed Langstone Road into the houses
where an unfortunate sequence of events combined to leave the pack
split into two groups. There are many cherry blossom trees in this area,
the petals cover the pavement in a speckled carpet of pink and white,
the special flour is pink and white, result, lost trail.
So the FRBs ran round Southbrook Road, following pink petals while the
tail end followed flour down Rectory Road, reaching a fish hook which
just added spice to the confusion.
We managed get back together at the east end of Hamilton Close and then
enjoyed a gentle jog north under the droning A27, almost to the old Havant
station yard. There are lots of ways to go here, and the lucky checker
was Spiderman who took us east and then south on Wade Lane to a droning
regroup at the underpass.
The sun was now out, warming us nicely as we continued south on the lane,
with Flash trying to baptise young Ryan in the stream on the way and Bika
taking yet another long false trail. A fish hook where we reached the
harbour caught Bambi, Old Faithful, Pink Flamingo, Sinbad, Popeye and Bika,
and then we had a lovely jaunt west along the sea wall with the sun out
and the tide in, back to The Ship, glorious!
Back over the bridge we reached the chariots after one hour and twenty
seven minutes of following dough and seeing pink spots.
Circling up there was some mutual admiration as we thanked the hares
(for the hash) and they thanked us (for turning up) and we could have
mentioned the distance of false running that Bika had made, or the
bloody gash on Bambi's knee, or Dr Blood starting out under an umbrella.
Instead our JM awarded the Hash-It to himself and Thom for managing to
finish with dry feet, quite a feat.
Some returned to The Ship to slake their thirst.
Bambi.
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