Mother Brown was kindly carting Bods and me to the run and we got to the car park or to be more exact, outside it, with more than 15 min to spare. It was absolute chaos and we were then looking to park on the side road.  After passing many cars that had, Ron was unwilling (wisely, it turned out) to park there.  So, we drove on to park at Denbies and wait, as instructed, to join the hashers, when they arrived. The Denbies estate, however, is 154 hectares (380 acres) in size!  Those who knew the territory might know where to go but we didn’t.  We did manage to find and join the pack and started to climb that first punishing hill.  There was a short cut which avoided it. It’s hilly around Westhumble, an area of outstanding natural beauty and we had the weather to appreciate it.  I found myself in a small group with Fleur D’Or and ‘Is Knees.  We were searching for flour in Chapel wood and Fleur eventually found it at the top of the hill (I’d given up, halfway).  I went back to call to ‘Is Knees when Atalanta appeared and overtook us.  There was a sip stop in Beechy Wood and then Le Pro became the leader of our little group.  We then descended that “Jacob’s Ladder” which my knees did not like!  I said to ‘Is Knees (who had been trailing behind us) “I had to be very, very careful there”, he added three more carefuls.  That area is absolutely carpeted with Wild Garlic.  After a pleasant stroll along the Mole and an encounter with a large herd of heifers we were heading via the local station, to the A24 which the trail crossed using the Burford Bridge tunnel.  We’d passed the OnOn which had at least two parking spaces left!  I guessed that the On-In would go along the picturesque banks of the Mole.  I was wrong, it drudged along the A24 race track.

  At the circle, the GM welcomed (back) Bonn Bugle, Missing in Action and Bigfoot as visitors.  He commended the hares for their bad parking choosing a car park on one side of a dual carriageway when entire trail was on the other side and having a drinks stop at the top of a hill.  The newly returned RA, as is his wont, inordinately droned on about many things but, eventually, called out his sinners which included: RHUM, Master Bates, Missing in Action, Le Pro, Velcro, Atalanta, Blue Suit, SBJ, Hans de Schwanz, Veggie Queen, Hornblower, Stevie Blunder, Bolshie and Gibber. An unforeseen ramification of the Plan B (Denbies) parking was poor Bods.  His Hash algorithm, adjured by Mismanagement is to follow the trail for 15 minutes and then return to the start.  No wonder he was missing from the circle!  As he has been dutifully doing this, I was not as concerned as others as to his fate.  The phone coverage allowed connection but not intelligible speech so, Ron and I made our way back to the Denbies car park where we found Bods, who had been waiting patiently, for some hours.  [Petal and Flash had entertained him for a while by changing there…] On our way we passed the cars that were parked on the side road.  All of them were adorned with Parking Violations on their windscreens (windshields, Jerry).  I thought it prudent to check with Denbies’ reception that their parking was still free. It is and no registration is required [but you fell for the joke that you had to sign in, which amused Flash’s litttle brain!]

  The OnOn was a kilometre from where we were parked which was a “Bridge too far” for one of our number.  After many fruitless orbits around The Stepping Stones trying to park we went to my local, The White Hart (free parking) whose garden backs onto the picturesque Wey Navigation and Bods had his Sunday roast.

 Is it all these immigrants what are using up our parking spaces?

OnOn,

Master Bates