Dormouse rose from his tent before Speed Bump and made a beeline for the breakfast supplies.  Speed Bump realised he was gorging himself to find he’d eaten half of her early morning meal also.

They decided to close camp, leave the hash and go for a gentle walk instead of joining the next r*n.  At this point, Cyberseptic advised Speed Bump the best route up the hill back to terra firma, however none of this direction was heeded and she headed for the steepest part of the hill with wheels spinning.  Cyber looked on, arms folded, with an expression which said ‘I told you so.’

After such excitement, the rest of the morning, packing of tents and setting off to Newby Bridge seemed uneventful.

At High Dam Access Park, Twisted was present having flown back from Turkey especially for our r*n – that’s dedication.  Bitter however, had gone to Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway’s Steam Day to take pictures of trains, since the weather conditions were so good.

We pre-selected our beverages for the beer stop and set off.

This r*n could be described as up, along and down.  That would be a poor write-up so I’d better elaborate a bit.

After r*nning up a rather large hill, we were in a brilliant position to look out over the southern lakes.  There was one open check in particular which had all the hallmarks of a Bubbles check.  No markings within a mile of the damn thing.

There were a couple of viewpoints on the r*n – which was nice.

We were instructed in the circle previously that when we passed over a new ladder stile, the trail followed the line of a wall until the wall turned away and then follow directional arrows.  It transpired the arrow had been laid facing the wrong way and we were well off trail through thick bracken and brambles.  Bubbles was watching from the undergrowth and eventually called us back onto the trail.  He then blamed Forever Blowing for the arrow error, yet we were convinced he just wanted to watch us struggle!

The beer stop was next to Boretree Tarn (beers kept in the tarn to keep cool) and consisted of Turkish Delight from Turkey and chocolate hobnobs from the Co-op.  Cyberseptic said it was too cold to go swimming – boring.  This disappointment was soon forgotten when a lizard was found basking in the sunlight by Twisted and an Adder was spotted swimming across the tarn.

We then headed down hill, negotiating a loose stone track that was also a stream at one point and dropped into Finsthwaite.  We then followed the road back towards the car park, looking at the horses and lambs and stuff.

The circle took place with a guest appearance by RA Twisted.

DDs were given to

• Bubbles & ForeverBlowing:  Hares – with a new hash song from Cyberseptic.
• Cyberspetic:  Singing such an awful hash song for the hares.
• Twisted:  No hash gear (as usual), although Twisted protested as it has been ordered via the GA.
• MasterBaker, Antiseptic, Cyberseptic, Baldbrick and Upperskirt:  Having their knees out on full display (led by a new hash song “knees out hash browns”).

PS  I take this opportunity to acknowledge the help I received from Upper Skirt, Baldbrick, Speed Bump, Antiseptic, Twisted and Forever Blowing in composing the Duddon Valley Write-ups for this year.