The Day of the Trailblazers 
 Three days after St. George's Day a conglomeration of 
Hua Hin Hash House Harriers were to be found, with 
difficulty, at a semi-secret site somewhere to the 
West of Hua Hin preparing for H2H3's Run No 121. Hares 
for the day were Scotch Tape and the original purveyor 
of Itchy Hare Beans - Butt Out and these two local 
worthies assailed the ears of the assemblage with 
words of wisdom and warning before releasing them to 
face the savage forces of Nature. Walkers and Runners 
left the base area in different directions and 
loitered or loped along across fairly undemanding and 
unprepossessing terrain before intermingling again at 
a point where the trail took on a bit more character. 
Both bunches of miscreants made their way through 
groves of saplings and over mildly undulating 
countryside, ignoring the pre-set checkpoints and 
sticking rigidly to the true path. And the true path, 
true to form, began to lead inexorably upwards but in 
a gentle and fairly langourous manner until it came to 
the ultimate parting of the ways for Runners and 
Walkers. Suddenly for the Runners the road got steeper 
while the Walkers had a hopeful hiatus where their 
trail dipped temporarily before confronting them with 
the awful reality of a few more rugged ridges. 
 
The Runners, nagged on by their spirit guide, Scotch 
Tape, clambered and zigzagged their way up the 
hillside above the monks' village, enjoying plenty of 
picturesque panoramas from their precarious perches. 
Eventually the sweaty sloggers and the Sweaty Sock, 
emerged on the other side of the monks' village on to 
a well-known trail that has been Hashed over in both 
directions since time immoral.  Being back on a known 
path raised morale immensely and the Runners fairly 
sped along these few hundred metres of recognisable 
route before being plunged into the unknown uphill 
struggle once again. As the trail crested and began to 
decline it took a detour out to a viewpoint where a 
check mark had been placed on the clifftop, more in 
hope than in anger because the Hares did not think 
even a Hasher would contemplate the straight ahead 
option. However, the barnstorming Ballbanger was so 
overcome by the aerial view of his favourite landmark 
- the Roman Ruins - that he plummeted precipitately 
over the precipice and descended like an undersized 
avalanche to the peaceful pastures of Pedro's Patch. 
Soon afterwards 69Forever had to be restrained from 
following this egregious example and persuaded to 
pursue the rest of the Runners in regaining the paper 
trail and decanting downhill in a decent and decorous 
manner.The foot of the hill brought the fence round 
the town dump into sight so it was back to familiar 
territory once again. 
 
Meanwhile the Walkers, under the ardent aegis of Butt 
Out, were struggling through terra incognita on the 
rocky ridges on the other side of the monks' village. 
As underfoot conditions improved they were able to 
look up and survey the splendours of Hua Hin's 
seascapes as far as the eye could see, not to mention 
a bird's eye view of Immigration. Unfazed by 
checkpoints these mettlesome mortals meandered along 
in the wake of the lolloping Long Ron and drifted 
downhill back to the plain and unrestricted access to 
a direct pathway to the beer truck. And so it came to 
pass that the Walkers were first to the beer for a 
miraculous change while the Runners, happy to be back 
on home ground so to speak, decided to abandon the 
trail and make their own various ways back. All the 
Runners that is except the magnificent Old MacDonald 
who stuck to the trail through thick and thin (paper) 
and became the only Runner to emerge from the expected 
direction. These digressions by the other Runners led 
to them missing out on many of the sightseeing 
opportunities specially laid on by Butt Out and Scotch 
Tape for their benefit. The burgeoning blossoms, the 
lotus and lily pond, the graveyard of the spirit 
houses - all these delectable desiderata were spurned 
by the would-be trailblazers. 
 
Talking of trailblazers, the bugle-blowing 
Slackbladder was back amongst us and he was indeed the 
first blazer of parts of that trail so he will 
probably claim that he came back on the trail that he 
originally set. Anyway, back the blighter was and 
enthusiastically immersed again in the role of GM 
dispensing DownDowns with great aplomb. Poor old 
Scotch Tape was victimised so often that he thought 
the name of the game was DrownDrown not DownDown. The 
most multitudinous DownDown of the day was Short 
Cutting Barstewards because it comprised all the 
Runners except Old MacDonald. Darkness fell just 
before the Hashers did and some sundry survivors 
sought sustenance at the Mini Farm Kitchen for the 
OnOnOn. 
 
Scotch Tape