Venue: Antara Gapi
Hare: Pang Soo Wah
Co-Hares: Two Virgins
Scribe: Laurence (standing in for Melinda)
Comic: Charles Lee
It was an easy drive to Antara Gapi - a turning off the Old Ipoh Road that I'd never taken before. We drove through new housing estates, and then along empty roads and up a small steep hill. The run-site wasn't visible from the road going up, so some of us further up the hill and then looked back to see all the cars, and lots of people laughing.
The GM, JMs and several others were away in Kuching for the InterHash, but there was a good turn-out, and plenty of visitors.
From the run-site we had a great view of the mountains in the distance, and a number of isolated hills closer to us. We were wondering how far Pang and Rambo would take us, and which of the hills we'd have to climb - knowing Rambo, it would probably be all of them!
The Onsec (yours truly) stood in and set off the run. It started down a steep drain, causing a slow single-file queue, so some front-runners threw caution to the wind and ran down the slope, while a few older wiser hashers found an easier route in the trees.
After a small rubbish dump at the end of the road, we disappeared into jungle, and proceeded to and up one of the smaller nearby hills - at least, it looked small from afar, but felt quite large when we were climbing!
After about 45 minutes of checks and hills, but all going roughly in the same direction, we descended to find ourselves at a tall vertical waterfall - a beautiful sight for sore feet! A few front-runners ignored the natural beauty and stayed on paper, but most of us had a very strong shower (nice massage) under the clear cool waterfall.
Those who lingered at the waterfall were proved wise, as a short clamber across/through a muddy stream full of felled bamboo led to a track, then back across the stream to a check. This check took the longest to solve, with paper eventually found directly above it, up a steep sloop 50 metres from the waterfall.
By this time, most of the pack was either at the check or enjoying the waterfall, so everyone started clambering up the hill, which eventually led us into the clear stream that feeds the waterfall. Luckily we turned left, up the stream, instead of turning right and plummeting over the waterfall.
A bit more jungle, and then some wide tracks, led us along the very long trail back to the run-site, with the remaining checks solved quickly and the tired pack spreading out enormously.
The front-runner was back in a little under 2 hours, and back-runners were still coming back a lot later - luckily some of the walkers and visitors had turned back after (or even before) the first hill.
The circle saw some football fun (in those days, Germany and Holland were both still in the World Cup, and Germany even thought they could win), plus some tennis fun (Hugh 'Andy' Murray against Cyril the Agassi-lookalike), plus a lot of fun charges and down-downs. The Americans were deservedly punished for being a day early with their 4th-of-July t-shirts, and one German runner (Stefan?) from the KL Harriettes was named as the German version of Fierce Gay Boy.
And then to the On-On (the usual place in Serendah) for most people...
... however, Emilia, Isacc and a new-ish Australian hasher were still out on the trail in the dark, and still missing after 9pm. Dianty (Gary Waring's girlfriend) was also a bit late, so he went off looking for her in his LandRover, and found her just arriving at the run-site, but they continued into the forest, along with the hare in another car, to search for the 3 lost souls.
Isacc used his escape-and-evasion skills to dodge the rescue vehicles and walked out on his own, but Gary brought back the other two, and finally we were able to leave the run-site at nearly 10pm.
I don't know about the On-On (Sen ran the circle there), but I am told the hare was given a Down-Down. That seems fair - the run location was great, with good trails, and the waterfall was excellent, but it was over-long for many people.
A little bird tells me that we may be back at the same run-site in 2 or 3 months, but I don't think we'll be going as far as the waterfall next time.