The morning was frosty and icy as we gathered in the car park, some of us having already encountered black ice on the road there. Still, a number of hardy hashers turned up....ooooh, about 18 I think?
We were informed of many fish hooks to come and a sweetie stop, by the hare as well as giving us clear instruction to be careful as they were some very icy parts. Off we set heading towards Lawrence Castle itself only to have a quick regroup with hash flash at the very beautiful hash halt. Off we set again only to shortly after, have the first casualty of the day. Howling Wilf took a very hard tumble onto his backside, was he not listening to our hares warning earlier?
With a couple of short cuts for the walkers the trail headed off into the frost laden forest, with Itsy Bitz urging X Bitz to polish up her ice skating skills on the puddles. We then came to the next treacherous bit of the trail as we headed down hill on some very slippery slopes. With Wide Receiver keeping at the back to ensure we all got down there safely, it made some hard work for those FRB's doing the fish hooks. It was here PP was seen to make her excuses to get out of doing a fish hook, only to then be caught by the next one 100yds further down the track. Surely a misdemeanor worth fining?
As the trail headed in and out of the forest, the walkers stuck to the path meeting up together again at the sweetie stop. Well, Wide Receiver has been listening very carefully to the news that hashes are soon to be scored for the quality of sweets too and provided a great array of Haribo, allsorts, jelly babies and more!
Off we headed past the main car park back onto trail where the pack seemed to get split up. The trail threatened to head downhill so a few fairweather hashers, mentioning no names, (Tampa + Bush-Babie), decided to take themselves on a shortcut back to the car. Those of us hardy hashers, headed off down the hill winding our way back up past the 'Go Ape' centre. Lots more fish hooks followed as we made our way back to the car park where Spocky Bitz had very kindly laid on mulled wine and hot chocolate and I believe it was Twin Peaks who bought some mince pies.