With Skiddy the co hare, and the location being flat Lamyai country to the south of the city, what did we have in store? The first clues came on facebook, where Skiddy announced he had lost yet another phone, and that Ting Tong really was ting tong. Ominous signs!
I wasn’t feeling too good, but I dragged myself to the run site, and with hare brief telling us it would be ‘fun’ with a special surprise for us, we were off (hoping the surprise would be a beer stop!). Turkey led the way through some horrible shiggy, where we just picked our way avoiding the brambles, out onto a little road. Circle check and we split up. When Turkey does call On On he calls with such joy in his voice and we ran over to him to endure some more shiggy. Another check, and we finally broke out onto a wide area of freshly raised land – where the trucks come and dump mud to raise the land above the flood plain – mud is only flattened a bit, so when it gets wet (which it had), it turns into a sludgy pit. Feet were already getting encased in mud. The flood lake to the left we again followed Turkey to the end of the lake, and when he called circle check, we could already see the paper leading us around the other side of the lake – yet more gooey, sludgy, mud to struggle through.
In many ways I get an advantage, paying less attention to the state of my feet that say Chuckie does, so I emerged from the pit of slime just ahead of Turkey. Next circle and he followed me down to check at the road. That was the last I saw of him… I turned back and well, there was a bridge, so we’d probably be using it?! Sure we would! The next section weaved its way through some farms and crossed a road to a circle check at the edge of a rice field. A few steps to the right, and I spotted something white to the left of the rice field – closer investigation and I was on, along the edge. Another circle, with limited options, but to go to the road ahead. More farm, and more roads to cross… Some how I was managing to stay a bit ahead of Pigshit, and Chuckie just a bit further behind.
Finally got to another road, with a circle check. I was slightly torn, but went straight over again, with Piggy right on my tail. He muttered something about making sure I called it as he reluctantly checked another way. I ran it out, and sure enough called at the end when I turned the corner straight into a flooded, muddy field. This would slow them down a bit?! I ran through calling On. Finally some solid ground on a burr, and I could turn and watch Chuckie gingerly pick his way through, while Piggy ploughed on like a kid playing in waves at the beach. One last check, and there was something white flickering across the field. My luck was in, and as I emerged onto the road, I could see the restaurant just along to the right.
So focused on the restaurant, I took the long way around, and missed the shorter route through the gardens. Sadly Piggy didn’t miss it, and sprinted ahead of me calling On In. Nice going.