As usual, when I arrived early at this seldom-patronized runsite on the right of the Ayer Keroh – Bemban Road, there were already a number of earlier birds there. Among them were the ever-industrious On Sec. Chickadee, Hot Link, Dr. Pandirajah, Dr. Tan, Horlick, Dr. Lingkun and a few guests. They were seen busily preparing themselves for the run. Besides, our beer wagon had also arrived. Its barman Mah was seen unpacking the ice cubes into a tub to cool the beer and soft drink to quench our thirst.

It was a sunny and hot afternoon. As usual, looking forward for a good sweat-out, my partner and I started the run as early birds at 5.30 pm. We were being accompanied by 2 young guests namely Alex and Wong. We followed the paper which led right on a path into a leveled and abandoned housing estate. After walking for 15 minutes and across a few concrete drains, we arrived at the first and only simple check at the foot of a steep-sided hill. Its connecting paper was found by Wong some 20 meters away on the left. As usual, as early birds, we did not join the paper.

The paper then led upward through the barren and steep side of the hill with loose pebbles for some 20 meters. It was a tough climb which required our mutual assistance to pull each other. It hit a secondary jungle at its top. From then on, it meandered through the bushy path downhill for some 15 minutes before hitting the first and only simple false trail by the side of a river. A spread-out search resulted in me finding its connecting paper in a mixed fruit plantation southward across the said river through an abandoned bridge some 50 meters away on the right of the back trail. It then proceeded left across the said fruit plantation for a short distance before crossing a barbed wire fencing into to the compound of a Malay house by the side of a tarred road at Kampong Gapam. It was fruit season around the area then. The rambutan and durian trees were bearing ripe fruits with fragrant smell which made our saliva flowing. From then on, it was another 25 minutes walk cum jog on the tarred road through the said village with a number of Malay houses, a mosque and a lot of fruit trees before arriving back at the runsite at 6.35 pm where the beer wagon, the hare and a few non runners were waiting. I was the first to arrive back followed closely by Alex and Ranger. It took scheduled energetic runner Ranger 32 minutes to complete the run.

It was a well-set short and interesting run across the friendly terrains of 4.2 km as measured by Killer Tony’s GPS. According to the hare, the trail was set after a reccee was conducted 2 days earlier with co-hare Tongkat Ali. The last runners were back at 7.10 pm when the sky was still bright. For our support, we were each given a beautiful grey T-shirt by the hare.

Hash circle was conducted by GM Cocker. It was well-attended by some 50 hashers who included a number of guests. As usual, the hare and a few sinners were put on ice and on-downed. It was then announced by GM Cocker that our membership was still short of 12 to reach the closing number of 100. As such, to avoid disappointment, he urged the guest runners to apply for the membership early.

It was at 9.40 pm that the crowd had only started to disperse. A big ‘THANK YOU’ to Sharp Shooter for the good run, beautiful T-shirt and good subsidized dinner.

On! On!

Scribe: Drug Buster
Date: 11th July, 2007.