Hash Tribes Mass at Paddington
A tribal hash corroboree happens about 3 or 4 times a year. Is it a Luna thing; or is it just an excuse for a mass mash up?. And when the various tribes arrived it was a mass gathering of short ones, tall ones, stout, lanky, grey and wrinkly (lots), squeaky ones, grisly buggers, elderly matrons and a few sweet young fillies as well. Take your pick. And naturally a quite a few Harriette sniffing Poshman to represent our esteemed SH3 tribe. Even Grape turned up on the basis of a scurrilous rumour that matrons and fillies would not be attending this tribal corroboree. But the pick of the pack was of course our world tribal elder, none other than Grand Almighty Master Darwin Don. The ladies thought so too.
Venturing south of the Bridge has its perks. For one, it is relatively un-trodden territory for this tribe, more frequently the preserve of the Larrikins. But it holds a number of quiet secrets from which we could well benefit…..but more on that later.
And as darkness gently descended a cry from an unknown hare called for the seasonal stampede…flooding us onto the local streets much to the chagrin of the local natives-aka- shop keepers and commuters. For a while chaos reigned. Arrows, markings and any other clues for the front trackers were in desperately short supply or cunningly hidden, so that the milling masses looked grossly out of place standing outside shop fronts and at the end of laneways. Slowly however the trail clues improved, the pace increased, the pack stretched out and the milling morons thinned into small social groups and real trail blazers.
Paddington had some real surprises for the SH3 tribe. It has classy looking muggers alleyways, steep flights of steps, lots of hills to run up and down, quaint (but very expensive) cottages and terraces, and a choice of hidden parks and reserves. In fact a section of the trail was directly out of a Harry Potter movie scene with a labyrinth of uphill stairs and winding paths leading in all 3600 directions, any one of which could have been the real trail.
Years of hashing tracking experience picked out the arrows in the dark and we kept moving well, somehow linking up with the short cutting walkers who held us up along a stone lined, narrow heritage woodland walk which seemed to go on for ages. But a great trail and unfamiliar to us northern tribes.
And the final stretch was through more cobbled streets and laneways coming out behind the Paddo tennis club and back to numerous eskies with cold sherbets to suit the palette of even this discerning north shore tribe.
In all the foot tapping, social yaking, beverage imbibing activities, one tribal member stood out. Music Man was noted for exercising his wiles and charms on the fairer (mostly smaller tribe of fillies and matrons), but with what long term results we will not know..as the food frenzy took over. The front liners missed out on what those at the rear received and vice-versa, although it seemed that overall there was enough, if only it was dished up over a long time. That’s the problem of feeding a mass corroboree.
Hares for next winter’s runs should consider “a walk on the wild side” of the ‘Arbour Bridge’. It’s pretty easy to get to and an excellent reprieve from the ubiquitous street and car park bashing around Gordon, Pymble, Turramurra and Killara. In the meantime we now look forward to the best of our hashing calendar. Summer runs in the bush……Hares for this season please note… minimize bitumen and concrete. A poisoned pen awaits recalcitrants who stray from this maxim.
Your Hash Journo