Report of Recce 1 last weekend

[Madras Hash House Harriers]

Dear Bakarapet Hasher

But for some sleepy friends from Bangalore (only 6 have registered so far from there), everyone who is come for the next edition of Jazz in the Jungle has registered.  66 in all, and the House Full shingle goes up, with the list from Madras/Hyderabad being complete.  Bangalore folk, please wake up and send in your RSVPs.

Last weekend saw, Vishnu drive up with Jayraj and Vinod for Recce 1 (there will be several more).  They left on Sat on the dot of .....  well, whenever one of the three could come out of the stupor induced by the stuff they pour out at the Distil.

On the way, stopped at a field where they saw a couple of women minding a herd of pork-on-hoof.  Info for the ones drawing up a budget - a small animal costs Rs 500/-, while a large one costs Rs 1000/-.  Could imagine one over the barbecue pit, but would probably go in for lamb instead, paying a much, much higher price.  If someone wants to do a pork, Mismanagement can get you the needful. Email and let us know.

That evening the Trail Blazers went up to Devara-konda, which is a the Indian equivalent of Ayers Rock in Australia.  Let us call it Iyers Rock.  A huge monolithic stone, which is bigger and higher than any hill near Madras.  The Lexus Land-Crusier made it quarter of the way up a rockface, and the hares trudged up another 25%, and could imagine a Runners Trail going all the way up.  Lovely countryside all around.  Vishnu's eyes misted over when he recalled how he stood at a particular spot (with a camera, I think he said) while villagers had driven a herd of wild boar which had been ravaging their peanut crop.

Buy a pair of good shoes, if your current pair does not have a good grip. You will need it when you walk on Iyer's Rock.

Next morning saw the three, accompanying by 3 locals go into a dense part of the forest through a ravine, losing about a 800 feet in altitude in the process.  Will make a good trail to start off the weekend.  Ended up at point B, on this A to B trail, where they waited for Ravi/Shantha and Major Lakshman (a friend) to drive up from Madras with much needed chilled bottles of KFisher.  

The walk through the A to B path took over 90 minutes.  Runners with their false trails will take as long. Mismanagement is considering giving out Legionary Caps as part of the Goody Kit, to keep your head from getting scratched by twigs. Beep Beep and Twinkle Toes both wore one - one from Run 50 and the other from Run 100.  Vishnu wore a hat from a game lodge in Kenya.

A heavy lunch and a few swigs of beer later (you know how little hashers drink), the afternoon recce was washed out as Shantha slept through the late afternoon.

That evening saw Vishnu cooking up a mean "dum biryani".  Slow cooked over hours, with an amount of ghee which we will not acknowledge, with Vishnu staying away from liquor while the rest downed a bottle or two of Single Malt, the biryani was to die for.  Aromatic as hell.  While others tucked in to the biryani, Vishnu pulled out his Black Label and proceeded to finish it single handed from then till 4 am.  At 2 pm he decided to recce a trail though Mangalapet (?) forest, which is really very, very dense, and Vinod could see no hope of laying a trail apart from the one the Lexus drove on.   They drove on down to the plains, and circled around to drive up the usual route via Kalyani Dam back to Tally Ho.  One or two stops on the way to admire a handsome stag, and a sambhar which climbed up from a gully to cross the road. The sambhar was so startled, you can bet it will never again cross a road.

Next morning should have seen the hares go off to Talakona, scene of Run 2 of the Jazz in the Jungle series which started 4+ years ago. The government is said to have laid out a canopy walk, perhaps like the one in SW Australia, where they have the Land of the Giants tourist spot with a walk of a couple of hundred meters long laid way above the ground through tree tops.  Once again, Shantha kept delaying the departure till it starting raining steadily.  More beer down the gullet.  Ravi promised to come back for Recce 2, where we could do Talakona, apart from recce-ing other trails for our databank.

Who is ON for Recce - 2?  Email back and we will set mutually convenient dates and drive down.  It will have to be before Shantha gets back if any trails are to be recce-ed. She is away to the sub-Himalayas for a few weeks, to give her mate much needed respite.  He is said to have bought her a one way ticket, but strongly suspects that "she'll be back!"

On On

Your Scribe for the weekend.

Note on email lists:

Sign on with your email at the website www.madrashash.com to get the regular Hash Mail.  You can also sign on for the Bike Hash mail on the Bike Hash page to get info on their activities.  This mail from the Jazz in the Jungle Group that you are getting is for an exclusive group of old friends, and we will maintain the numbers by filling in vacancies caused by people leaving the country with hard core hashers - people who hare their share of Runs.  No room for the casual one.