The Big 600 and the effects of Mud

This past Saturday the 4th of October marked the 600th Hash for the Grenada Hash House Harriers. Once again this has nothing to do with Cannabis. Although I did wander through a few questionable crops, I stick with my story that the plants were left un-harvested. For those not familiar with the basics of Hashing see an earlier post this year in ... March time frame ... i think.
Anyhow for one reason or another this past weekend's hash is only the second hash I've made it on thus far. Even on a little island like this life does get busy and unforeseen obstacles get in the way. I also purposefully avoided any hashes that were held around where we live. I see no point in walking the streets of areas i am familiar with, i like getting lost and covered in mud in the rain forest MUCH more. This 600th was perfect in that regard.

So on to the big day. This Saturday's event was preceded with a torrential down pour that lasted quite some time and provided some much needed rain. It also ensured that this hash was going to be VERY wet and muddy! Some people have asked me where the hash was held. You've got to remember that unless you're a local getting any more specific than the province you're in is essentially hopeless. The directions to get to the hash literally said follow this road until you get to the red gate, turn left there and go until you reach the white house with the green shutters... and on and on. No street names (or VERY few), no area names (such as such and such town), and "landmarks" that pretty much all look the same make getting places a little... interesting. So I cheated. I drove to where everyone was meeting to get rides, the Carenage, and just followed another car up to the hash location. Again I couldn't tell you for the life of me how we got there.

The hash spot was a very beautiful location. One of those multi-million dollar properties in the states which was owned by someone who probably paid less then 50,000 for it. (and probably a LOT less then that.) The picture below is where we parked. Take a look at the hills in the background, eventually I end up sliding and climbing my way across those hills, but I'll get to that later...
Below I turned around 180 degrees to face the party scene...
After wandering through those tents of beer, rum, and BBQ food I came to the edge of the hill to see this nice view...
Before the Hash "hounds" are released the unofficial officials say a few things, give a few hints for the Virgins, and generally try to give you the impression that it'll be a piece of cake with a smirk of glee. It's generally known that anything the person says about the hash is probably only 50% true at best. :)
One of the things being described by the guy in the goofy looking pose is the trail options. Normally there are one or two trails. Usually they are a walkers trail and a much longer runners trail. The idea being that the runners and walkers will finish about the same time. The "runners" trail can seldom actually be ran though and would be better named the difficult trail. This hash, being the special 600th hash had three options, the walkers trail, the runner's trail, the Oh-so-politically-correct-but-annoying-as-hell name of "Iron Persons" trail (as in Ironman). The Iron Person's trail was no longer than the runners trail, it was just much more technical. (aka, guaranteed to make a mess of you). My friend Bob and I decided to of course choose the most foolish trail and proceeded to do the Iron Person's trail.
And we are off! Above is a meadow we came to right off the bat. If you look closely you'll see just a little ways below the tree line dots of Hashers heading off into the rain forest. This was the last, and pretty much only flat ground we were to see.
Above is a site that was quite a surprise... horses! Contrary to popular belief there is more than just four or five horses in Grenada. This heard of 5 or so horses all had ropes of sorts tied around their necks to show they are "owned" but not tied to anything.
Above another shot of the horses, for those like my wife there can never be enough shots of the horses. Sadly the horses were pretty skinny even with all this grass which indicates parasite infestation. At least they seemed pretty happy! I am not quite sure what a Grenadian does with five horses in the middle of the rain forest but hey whatever it was a neat sight.

Below, this is the start of the "Iron Persons' "trail. There were a surprising number of hashers that chose to do this route as can be seen by the number of people ahead of me.
Below, a nice quick shot off the side of the trail seen above as we head up the mountain.
Below, now things are getting interesting... It's hard to see from this picture but the easy trail ended into a flat faced hill going practically straight up. With vines, banana leaves, and roots as our hand holds we started the true part of the trail, straight up!
Unfortunately from this point on it got so "interesting" that i couldn't take the camera out for a shot. I was always hanging on to something or sliding down some hill (not usually on my butt). So the following photos are of about the second half or so of the hash after we came out of the rain forest. Note the many buildings, all still topless and abandoned, I am assuming from Ivan.
Above this goat was sure to tell us LOUDLY and PROUDLY that this was HIS grass filled house.

Below, this goat decided that standing on top of this small brick pillar (much smaller than it looks) was a good vantage point to watch us humans trot by...
Above, baby goat! You can't help but go aaawwww...

Above, the remains of another house after Ivan...
Above, when walking past this plant I was overwhelmed with flashbacks of a familiar scent... Jasmine! Took a minute to put my finger on it, then I looked at this flower... hmm well yes it's white, and the rest of the plant is green but if this is Jasmine it's on steroids, SERIOUS steroids. This flower was over 4 inches across. As far as I am concerned this is the super jungle variety of Jasmine.

With the exception of the after party which had lots of Carib, rum punch, and all sorts of great BBQ food, that's the end of the pleasantries of the hash. I unfortunately chose the wrong pair of shoes for this monumental hash. I chose a pair of semi-closed sandals, kinda like crocs but material not rubber. Anyhow after getting off the mountain, about half way through the hash my feet were DYING! But it wasn't the bottoms of my feet, it was the tops... I was in mud up near my knees many many times while in the rain forest (and after), this mud was very gritty and easily found it's way into my sandals but not back out. A layer of mud formed under my feet which was similar to having a bar of soap in your shoes. My shoes would hit the ground but my feet didn't stop moving till they were crammed into one end or side of the shoe. Seeing as I was climbing on a steep slope this meant extremes, front back side to side. This constant movement inside the shoe mixed with rough sandpaper like mud ground the tops of my feet. I assumed I was getting blistered by the pain I was in. The solution? Ditch the shoes! Yes I am in a developing country with who knows what in the water and mud and therefore in my wounds but I didn't care. The pain was too great to keep on as I was. After removing sandals I actually did pretty well with the rest of the hash except for the pavement parts which to my wet tender city feet felt more like razor blades instead of rocks.
Below are my feet after the hash... I started to rinse them off, but just the water touching them burned so bad I decided a layer of mud caked on was just fine!


After I got home I showered of course seeing as i was COVERED in mud. Rinsing and scrubbing my feet below is what I found...

What you're looking at is more then 16 open wounds, and this is them looking at their best. For the sake of the reader I didn't take a photo yesterday or today (a day or two after the hash) as all those wounds looked a lot worse as they scabbed, oozed, and started to become infected. Luckily for me I've got a budding Doctor in the house! Although I don't have hooves, a tail, a rumen or fur she was still willing to save my poor feet. If the degree of sizzling from Hydrogen Peroxide is any indication of how infected or how much gunk is in a wound then I had quite a bacterial feast going on as my feet hissed and bubbled quite a bit! Something about all this brought out something I didn't know about my self, apparently I don't like watching my skin bubble and sizzle... I immediately got light headed and dizzy... :) Good proof of why Megan's the Dr. and not me. :) My feet are slowly on the mend now as I hobble around.

In case you're curious, was it worth it? HELL YES!!! Hashing is a TON of fun and I hope I am healed enough to do it again in two weeks! (this time with different shoes!)

ON ON!