Sunday, May 22

Clyst St Mary - Tampa - 22nd May 2016

Tampa, Runner Bean and Paperwork were all celebrating Birthdays this week and as has become tradition, we celebrated in style with a trail around Clyst St Mary and a BBQ in Tampa’s garden.
The trail took us down into the village where most of the pack wrongly assumed that we would be heading onto the marshes, so we all negotiated the wall to get into the field, decided there weren’t actually any marks there and climbed back over again.  The next leg of the trail led us up a long lane which was mainly marked in fish-hooks.  As we headed off up a track into a field, the rain really began to come down.  Some attempted to shelter underneath a tree whilst others bravely checked and found the trail (at the same time trying to keep warm).  Eventually we reached a long/short split.  The longs were treated to a beautifully manicured field, before turning onto a lane and re-joining the shorts at the sweetie stop.
We headed back towards Clyst St Mary via a muddy farm track and a field with some nosy cows before a hash halt near the river.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t warm enough to take a dip, but some people washed their shoes off.
Back at Tampa’s house a Gazebo had been erected in the back garden due to the dubious weather and there was a lovely spread including Birthday cake and scones, with plenty of debate about whether to put the cream or jam on first.
Next week's hash is a virgin lay from Footloose from Forest Gate car park at Ashclyst Forrest (map is here). Please don't forget to rate the hash - the hare of the best trail of the year will receive an award at the 2016 Christmas hash.