Sunday, May 19

Clyst St Mary - Tampa - 19th May 2019

Words by Wide

So it begins as most hashes do, from a car park however, we didn’t get away until 1110. Bluto was even later as he went to Stoke Woods, nice one for making the effort to get to the right place in the end though. So after stories of traction engines passing the start and Boots in Puss tell us about the hash from his in a few weeks, we were off.

The shorts straight down through the village and the longs across the main road, over the foot bridge and then through the village. Damp patch and Imelda flew off as we got to the old causeway over the Clyst river but soon looked baffled as to the direction as there was a craftily places back check. Birthday boy and hare, Tampa lily, was shouting at me from a distance but as I myself am getting older failed to hear his cries. It was a jump over the walls and into the fields. X-Bitz, Itsy Bitz and Son of a Bitz scrambles over to find steps on the other side to make it easier. I jumped over all of them. Through the field and out the other side we came into Bishop Court Lane, the back road that skirts around Westpoint. Howling Wilf made sure we all knew Mid Devon cycling club were on their way along the road, we all parted to let them pass. The numerous fish hook, cunningly placed, kept the pack together. I got to see Tight Lips again and again, so everything was alright.
Another long/short split was found by the FRBs, I found more and more flies in my face as we made our way down the country lanes. Then we found a Ha Ha. Thanks Tampa.

When the longs joined the shorts, we picked up the trail that went through a field in view of the afore mentioned Bishop’s court. It was the Palace of the Bishops of Exeter since the 13th century. The house is regarded as a fine example of a neo-gothic house following its remodelling in the 1860's by eminent Victorian architect William White anyway, this isn’t a history lesson Wide!
Down “the Drive” we went through a tree lined path and over bridges, Spocky saved Son of a Bitz from leaping over the side. Fancy licker wasn’t as lucky as Bramble the dog wanted to play with the swans, they did not however.

Onto the sweetie stop in the pretty village of Sowton. Stark contrast to the industrial estate that shares it name, Woof Woof couldn’t believe it.
Now it was time to start making our way back. The route lead us into a farm yard with large amounts of tractors, combines and trailers, Harribo just wanted to jump onto these but would have to stick to climbing trees as I don’t think the farmer would have been happy.
Mad Max kept Benji under control as we went back along a field from earlier although via a different way but Drop Off lived up to his name and did drop off the end of the trail. Apparently we were going slowly as the bullocks had surrounded him in the last field before we came back out into Clyst St Mary.
Then On Home.

Brains, Coffin(after taking only an hour to do a triathlon rather than hash), Cosette, Flojo, Imelda’s parents(Sue and Dave), Jeronimo and random others were all waiting back at the hare’s abode. And a lovely spread was out. We ate, we drank, someone(not mentioning any name Jeronimo) feel asleep and we all sang happy birthday to the septuagenarian while he spat cake and smoke at his Grand daughter.
Next week we're at Stoke Woods Upper car park (map) for a trail laid by Child-Catcher, Bull-Bait, Stingray and Splat