Rainbow Run

I’ve never seen so many rainbows on a single day!

I’ve never been so wet with the sun shining!

This was the ultimate rainbow run!

There was a rainbow when we set off from Bishopsdale, promising a fine sunny day after the drenching of run 321. That promise was never kept.

There was a rainbow when we drove into Askrigg looking for non existent car parks and non existent hares.

We were drenched when we parked by the roadside amid sensible churchgoers sheltering inside the church and we were drenched when we set off up a ginnel looking for non-existent flour.

Shouts of On-On were drowned in the torrent of rain sheeting from our running gear, but somehow someone managed to find blobs of flour in the flooded fields.

On-On up the road we came in on and On-On higher and higher as traffic splashed us and flour appeared miraculously without the hand of hares.

There was a rainbow as we splashed down the hill to the over-full banks of the Ure and as we tried to explain to a car-bound local why we were running in circles shouting and blowing soggy horns on the stormiest day in the memory of even a hardened Wensleydale farmer!

There were rainbows in the trees as the autumn colours shone in the sunlight while the rain continued relentlessly, driven by a gusty wind.

There was a rainbow as we lost the trail and followed Dormouse and Speedbump over a soggy field where no-one believed the trail could be uphill yet again.

Uphill it was and emerged through a limestone scar onto –not open fellside but a road with a car full of beer and biscuits.

Our enjoyment was short-lived as other cars splashed by and diluted the beer. All too soon calls of On-On resumed and off we splashed again.

Dogs are said to be colour-blind and can’t appreciate rainbows. That must be why Harry refused to stop at the checks and pressed on regardless in the direction of flour. After a lifetime of Hashing he can smell flour 2 miles away even in heavy rain! How does he do it?

Finally we splashed through woods and down to civilisation in the shape of the soggy village of Bainbridge, where we saw – what do you think? Waterfalls again!

After a short regroup we could all smell the direction home and even the hares re-appeared to confirm the fastest route back along the river bank. But it wasn’t to be!

Halfway there we failed to find flour and had to backtrack to a steep uphill road past a small waterfall which everyone ignored, having seen too many the previous day! On-On through woodland that might have been pretty if we could have seen anything through our rain-soaked hoods. On-On until the trail stopped and could go no further for the torrent of water falling from the cliff directly again. Yes – another waterfall – and a big one too! Must come back on a fine day and check it out – but today where is the pub and dry clothes and a roast beef dinner?

On-On yet again and home through more rainbows.