Venue: Rebutia (old Bentong Road)
Hare: Nick Bloy
Co-Hare: Patrick Russell
Scribe: Laurence
We drove through the haze, under threatening clouds, past Batu Caves and on to the narrow winding road (once a major route) under the Karak highway and on to Camp Rebutia. Signs took us across a bridge, up and down a rough track to the new run-site - a pleasant grassy area under durian trees.
The run started on time, back along the road, dodging many late-comers who were still arriving, and up into the grounds of another holiday camp. The path went up and down on the right bank of a stream, and then down to the stream itself, where there was a singly lonely piece of paper on top of a rock (we found out later that this is the hare's idiosyncratic way of setting checks).
On-On was called back up the path, and we soon found ourselves out of the pleasant forest and going through a large round tunnel (under the Karak highway) and then climbing the first of 3 steep hills.
Luckily the threatening clouds chose this moment to prove that they weren't just bluffing, and the heavens opened to give us a lovely cool shower to climb the hill in. This also made it very muddy and slippery, of course. On the way down the other side, in very thick undergrowth, we found red ants hopping onto us from all the leaves we brushed past/through/under, and were soon grooming each other like chimpanzees.
I was told that leeches were also leaping onto people, causing much panic as they attached themselves to people's backs and arms instead of the usual ankles. One young harriette (who we won't name) even got a leech in her pierced belly-button, but luckily it was removed before it crawled too far down her trousers.
On reaching the bottom of the valley, where else could we go but up again?
This time the path led up, up and up to a couple of electricity pylons, with a check in the forest above the top one. The check was solved down from the lower pylon, and soon we were slip-sliding away down a steep forested slope, with a small rocky ravine for the unwary to plunge into at the bottom of the mud-slide.
Then the front-runners scrambled up the other side, only slowing when there was some confusion about the trail. A clear trail emerged going left down a path, which provided some fast (if dangerous, especially for Rambo) running, and came out near a house where a small road and several tracks met.
The paper turned sharp right, leading up a path (more of a stream, with the continuing rain!) about 200 metres, until it suddenly stopped. We weren't sure if the paper had been washed away, or picked up, or if this was another of the hare's unconventional checks, but people went searching for long distances in every direction.
It felt like about 20 minutes of running around, trying new side-trails and ignoring the prognostications of people with GPS's (the modern-day sooth-sayers), before the check was finally solved behind the house/hut and through some swampy ground.
It felt like the entire pack had caught up by now, and we filed up a hill, and then down a little way to another check. This was correctly guessed as going back and left, leading very soon to another check down by a rocky stream.
We were almost back in civilisation (picnic areas and swimming spots) here, and most people took advantage of the relaxing surroundings to have a rest, leaving the GM to go off down the stream and break the check.
The paper led up a short way until we found yet another check at the top of a high, attractive waterfall, with many paths going in all directions.
The large front pack soon solved the check, along the hill-top, then down a steep/muddy/slippery slope, and then for a long distance along a meandering stream. Hidden roots were always ready to catch a trailing foot and send you face-first into a puddle, but I think everyone survived.
Soon we could hear the highway, and came out of the stream to a check in a clearing. We knew we were close to home, but didn't know which way to go, and it was at this spot that some back-runners/late-comers would get lost later.
A short walk back in the stream took us to two large, long, parallel tunnels under the highway, so we sent a brave person through. He disappeared for a while, and eventually we heard him shout on-on - the paper wasn't immediately clear even after the tunnel, and we had to climb onto a ledge to the right before finding it.
Now we had a small grassy hill to run up, disturbing a bee's/wasp's nest on the way (many stings), and then running down a muddy, steep & slippery road (sorry if I've used the words 'muddy', 'steep' and 'slippery' too much in this report, but I can't think of better adjectives for this run!).
Just before the bottom, the paper turned sharply up into the undergrowth, before climbing through a hedge and then down to a gravel track for the last 100 metre sprint to the beer truck, where the hare was waiting in a bright pink t-shirt so we couldn't miss him.
Some runners missed the steep turn and stayed on the muddy road but they could already smell the beer and found their way home safely.
Front runners were back in just over 2 hours.
Most back runners trailed in over the next 30 minutes, with most of them peeling off leeches and dripping blood everywhere.
All in all, a very good run through varied and fun terrain, including some real beauty spots. Some loved the rain for cooling things down, but others hated it for turning steep paths into slides.
By this time, even though the rain had stopped earlier, the nice grassy run-site had turned into a mud-back, with all the hashers' feet squishing around and cars leaving early, spinning their wheels.
In the circle, there was a good selection of charges, plus a 'birthday cake' torture for Nan (including eggs and flours in her hair). Some dozy hashers were charged for ignoring the new run directions and driving to Bukit Tinggi instead (apologies to any snail-mailers who never got the new directions!).
A few people were still out on the run, though.
he last ones came in after 9pm, well after most people had descended on Linatex to benefit from the hare's immense generosity - you only have to whisper 'free on-on' to get hashers worked up into a frenzy!
Food and drink and fun at the on-on was said to be very good, with free-flowing beer!
Despite the excellent run, and the blatant bribery of the easily-influenced hashers at the on-on, the technical fault of taking more than 2 hours (plus those unconventional checks and poor lost souls) meant that the hares' fine efforts didn't reach the heights of a "T-Shirt Run" but were rewarded with the customary down-down instead.
Thanks Nick & co.!
Venue: Serendah (Opposite Antara Gapi)
Hare: Nar Swee Kim
Co-Hare: Chinese Connection
Scribe: Rambo
The turn out was slightly below 100 runners, and notably missing were the runners who would be running the Ball-breaker the next day. The run was in an anti-clockwise direction with 5 checks.
It started off by going through the tick lalang into a stream which had very little water due to the recent dry spell. Paper left the stream into rubber, in a loop, and ended in a abandoned nursery for the 1st check.
On On was called across a pond in overgrown rubber. The trail then meandered through rubber, oil palm and then up a rubber hill to the 2nd check. Paper was found right at the bottom of the hill. It then went down to another stream, up into oil palm, and then up the biggest slope of the run into jungle. It exited into an open area of new rubber to the 3rd check. Check was broken back, right in a smelly stream which joins a clear stream with a Indian shrine on the bank of the stream.
Paper continued along the stream then out into rubber and oil palm to the 4th check. From here it was all oil palm running with one more check. 1St runner in was 1 hour and 12 mins with the pack back by 6.10 pm. As it was a hot day the short run was appreciated especially by the people who will be running the ball-breaker the next day.
Circle was called early at 7.00 pm with a few charges. Peggy was on down twice and the ball-breaker runners were also on down. David of Api-Api Hash from KK invited the Hashers to celebrate their anniversary next March. On On was called early and we were all at Rest 218 by 8.05pm. Food was served at 8.30 and we had 7 nice dishes. Wolfgang was on-downed for shitting in his pants during Dave & Ben’s wedding. The Hare was given a T-shirt for the good short run. We were out of the restaurant by 10pm for an early night.