Those of us without mothers or who are not mothers gathered for the hash today with a couple of notable exceptions. The rest must have been at church visiting their Mother churches for that’s what it’s all about in case you didn’t know!

  Our haroine, Eskimo, tried to assure us that it wouldn’t be as hilly as Iceland, or words to that effect.  She and her trusted co-hare or “l’everet” had returned specially from the Caribbean to set the trail and were off again on Wednesday.  We are honoured!  Maybe they had other business too.  Leveret derives from the Old English “Leof-Raed”, beloved counsel, from as early as 1086.  It’s also a young hare and a nickname for a fast runner, so entirely apt on Surrey Hash.  The beloved counsel was nowhere to be seen at the start, so we wondered whether he had met with a Nordic end.  Atalanta, having arrived on time, so as not to get completely lost this week, was raring to go.  She stamped her feet and said, “When are we starting? I’ll thkweem and thkweem!”

  And off we went. Up and up and up. It was very steep.  At least when we were up we seemed to stay up, but the elevation chart shows that we had a steady decline for some distance.  The trail was clearly marked but perhaps some of the checks were rather easy to find, because after Raffles had had his third crap we struggled to catch up.  At last we came across RHUM, faithfully marking the checks.

  Where the walkers’ trail and the runners’ trails combined there were nice big arrows to avoid any confusion. Needless to say, there hadn’t been any because the sound of calling had faded away, or maybe there was none.  After another less strenuous climb it was all downhill to the “bucket”. The hares were duly awarded their “reward” for their efforts, whilst others were admonished for their misdemeanours. Visitors/returnees were Silent Knight, Baboon Arse and Machinist (hardly – just back from a short break in the Philippines). ‘Isknees was called in for ‘Is Ankle & Le Pro for I forget what! Tequil’over then treated us to a rendition of a poem loosely connected to the Landslip car park.  Despite it being Mother’s Day, The Parrot was very welcoming for our subsequent festivities.

  On on
  Petal