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Pak Sha Wan After a quick briefing, the run kicked off on time with the usual bunch of LSWers supplemented by a number of locals and several dogs. After stretching our legs on the main road towards Sai Kung town it was on left into Tai Chung Hau village and a circuit of the rough gravel trails, workshops, lock-ups, rubbish tips, dogs and narrow steel bridges. Once out to a check on the Pak Kong Rd, most stuck to the safety of the street lights, whilst your scribe found trail straight over towards the basket ball court. On-On was eventually called, but by the time I had retraced my steps to the road, all was quiet and not a soul was to be seen. A guess that the hares would lay trail past the Pak Kong luvshack proved correct and further good progress was made negotiating some familiar narrow back passages thru the houses. I had by now caught up sufficiently to hear distant calling from a pitch black area beyond a flat grassy patch. It turned out to be a river bed. A classic riverbed this was too. Wide, with a shallow uphill gradient and worthy of Action Asia status. The only downside were the hash dogs which preferred to follow closely under the feet of the humans rather than finding their own way thru the jumble of boulders. All the way up to the water works road then it was and alongside the catchwater to the end where the Mau Ping trail takes off uphill. Here the front runners were found checking in every conceivable direction - up the trail, along the fence line, into the long grass towards the next riverbed, but nothing. It seemed unbelievable that trail would not be found leading off above the catchwater. But, lo and behold, ON-ON was eventually called leading back down the road towards Pak Kong. A good check where the classic regrouping occurred - except for a couple of latecomers, plus FreeWheel and LIS who were probably still in the riverbed becoming more and more frustrated with the boulders! Next, it was time to get lost in Pak Kong Old village with your scribe bringing up the rear again. We exited into the woods at the far end of the village on an indistinct path with residents gawping at us thru the window of their house. They had probably never stepped foot on this old cultivated land themselves before and looked on incredulously. As the torches and headlights showed the pack getting strung out along the path, I noticed a path going off gently uphill to the left. And there was flour, so straight into the lead it was! Determined to stay at the front end for as long as possible I called the "ON-ON" and immediately put my head down, whilst keeping focused on the new method of marking which was toilet paper. And this was needed, for although some old short sections of path were discernible, there were many places where we seemed to be forging a route thru virgin bush. It wasn't until we were about to exit into the long grass before of Pak Kong Au Old Village, that a particularly tricky unmarked turn got the better of me, and the front runners came thru. Once back into civilisation, it was pretty easy to follow trail - for a while, as we descended towards Po Lo Che and the W/R split. ADWD plus myself followed others down the Rambos trail past the High Island management quarters towards the main road. We were so busy chatting about interval training that we missed the arrow leading over the main road and lost the pack altogether. We retraced our steps, lost markings again and then headed up towards the fire station and the road leading to the Marine Police base. By this time I could sniff a BBQ, well not actually, but rather a whiff of 'B' and Shelter Cove. Following the Doels and Dogs off the road and in towards the Lions Park, it was plain sailing, so to speak, for me - on round the back of the park, down thru Tsui Hang Village, along the waterfront and to the waiting hares and BBQ on the dock. Without the benefit of local knowledge, the Doels and Dogs had got themselves lost somewhere by the new fence circling the Lions Park and drifted in some 5 minutes later. The back markers followed and after a couple of hot dogs it was off to shower and into the clubhouse for the bash. Overall, discussion at the BBQ concluded it to be a very good with very imaginative use of the local terrain, all without the need to include any of the McLehose Trail. Just a few latecomers found the riverbed and bush sections rather too demanding. DDs by Hopeless with a little help from Indy The hares - Indy and Lost At Sea plus dog; good use of terrain, virgin lsw shiggy; 8.6kms for Rambos. The hares again - poor communication; mixed arrows, some open, some closed; 1st time LAS had set a run with the spouse; domestics while laying Dog owners - adwd x2, Michelle (Helen look-a-like), x1 Indy x1 Scribe, Bobbledick - "my laptop battery is dead" and stalking adwd Dr Evil - Hopeless mislaid $1000 of meal funds; Dr Evil found it in his change! Hopeless replaced it with $100 in notes, which Dr Evil found to be $90 only! Indyanus - lost watch during trail setting in the bush; announced ahead of run but nobody found it Comes Up The Rear - unintentionally doing the wimps and Coming at the Front Freewheel - dashed home last week for home cooking instead of pizza, leaving all his gear on the beach Shiggy Gah Gah - Michelle naming on week-ends Babes hash even though only 7 runners; but pack drank 10 bottles wine All Australians - Indyanus + BobbleDick; Australia Day Run; All Sailors - LAS & Bobbledick; James Cook on the Endeavour claimed the East coast in 1770 Non- British - Dr Evil & Comes-in-my-tunnel; first sighted by Dutch in 1606, but thought it was rubbish Convicts - 3FM, LAS, Freewheel, CIMT; Botany Bay landing to be established as settlement with convicts BobbleDick - doubled back into Pak Kong Au after seeing police car in case they ticketed his MGs ADWD & Wanchai Wanker - always yabbering on trail Mdoel - does the cooking for Tai-Tai wife The Hare - Indy claiming virgin trail, but done 10 times by Hopeless on SKSH3 WW - put his photo on Facebook, being rushed to hospital & asking visitors to bring food. WW - whilst in hospital, he talked two people to death Lost at Sea - supposedly had no hash T-shirt, but in fact had a 1996 LSW shirt underneath Hopeless for best dressed Aussie (in surfers shorts, Aussie coloured T-shirt & hat), and Tomoko for reasons best not published! The Hares - run clashing with QV 2nd anniversary party Returnees - lswnker and "MDoel" Anniversaries - 3FM, 325 runs; Indanus, 350 runs, Any Dog Will Do, 2nd run Dog naming - Patch to "Patch of the Day" LAS - freaked out when setting trail in wooded shiggy section; Byron found trail & both survived Dead fl - Lost in Space - as usual 
Forgot to reset my Garmin once I'd reached the jetty and H.M.B Pryke, so I had 38km by the time I got home.......
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