Hashers gathered at Ebony in beautiful glorious sunshine, several hashers from Wuxi had arrived early and were enjoying an al fresco lunch, they were soon joined by several Suzhou hashers plus visiting hashers until 22 people were waiting for the hash bus to arrive.
The hash bus complete with Agatha and hash beer arrived slightly late and after a further short wait for Alexis - who was running late –not that he has ever been late to a hash before, mind you!! The hash bus then set off for the start of the trail near SuShan, just west of Suzhou.
A trip of about 1 hour brought the hash bus to the grounds of an impressive 5 star hotel where the hares (Phantom Flasher, Neil, Engineer and MasterKater) were discovered having lunch. Many hashers took the opportunity to off load the beer that had been consumed in Ebony and on the Hash bus.
The hares then lead to the official start of the trail. Because there were 5 virgin hashers the GM, MasterKater, took extra time to explain the hash marks used on this trail.
Then we were off with the runners fast disappearing into the distance. The start of the trail was fairly flat with runners and walkers together but then came the split and we were soon going up through the terraces of tea plantations and into mountain goat territory. Our hares obviously have a sense of humour, how else can you explain a split in the trail where the runners trail continues on the level but the walkers trail disappears vertically into the heavens? Like they say what goes up, must come down, unfortunately in this case it was Tiny Tim that slipped on loose stones and ended up lacerating his right arm, luckily our RA is ambidextrous and can drink beer just as well with his left arm as he does with his right. Being so high did have the advantage of rewarding the Hashers with some stunning views of the countryside in the valley below.
It was a gloriously sunny day so the Beer Stop proved to be a welcome respite from the heat, however not before Wild Wenzi had caught a little too much sun and heat, so had to retire to the cool shade of the hash bus to recuperate.
SO A SERIOUS WARNING TO ALL HASHERS, ON HOT DAYS ALWAYS CARRY A BOTTLE OF WATER AND PREFERABLY WEAR A HAT OR SOMETHING TO KEEP THE SUN OFF YOUR HEAD.
The ever enthusiastic Footrot lead off on the second half of the trail, and his cries of OnOn could be heard fast disappearing into the distance; the remaining hashers dallied a little longer at the Beer Stop making sure that they replenished their fluid levels! The second half of the trail also contained separate runner and walkers sections but no mountains to climb only a few hills. Parts of the trail were still out in open countryside but as the end of the trail drew near so did civilization and the trail made use of the wooden decked walkways around the sides of the hills.
Then, horror of horrors, for the second hash running, NO BEER at the On Home. Luckily Engineer knew where the Hash bus was and directed him to the, by now, very hot very thirsty group of Hashers.
After allowing the group a reasonable amount of time to slake their thirst MasterKater brought the circle to order and the charges could begin, but not before Agatha blatantly advertised his Murder Mystery evenings and our RA kindly explained some of the rules of the circle to our virgin hashers.
Despite obviously trying to murder the RA by wilfully causing him to lacerate his arm, the group thought that overall the trail was a good trail, so the Hares escaped any poor trail Down Down’s. No naming this Hash so our friend “Igor” did not put in an appearance but the Hospital Bed Pans were put to good use by a virgin hasher with her new trainers and the experienced Wuxi hasher Puss in Boots who having invited her, did not warn about the perils of wearing new trainers.
Luckily for Engineer the circle had to be brought to a close; a) because we were running late for the BBQ back at Casa Zoe’s in SIP but perhaps more importantly; b) the odorous emanations from the canal next to the circle. Luckily people may ask? Luckily, because the Mismanagement Committee have photographic evidence of body adornment sported by Engineer on a usually, very private part of his anatomy, however he will not escape during the next circle! Whilst on the subject of photographic evidence our RA has photographic evidence of a hasher sleeping on the Hash bus back to SIP – the length of the trail, the heat and the beer obviously proved too much for him perhaps or was it linked to that hasher’s late appearance at Ebony? The Suzhou Hash demand to know!
Back at Casa Zoe’s the hash found a wounded comrade LTTB waiting in the beer garden with suitable liquid refreshment. Soon the Hash had taken over the Beer Garden and the staff proceeded to lay out a fine selection of BBQ style food for the Hashers to partake and a very pleasant evening ensued.
