2013-02-05 -37 144

Location

A paddock near Melton

Participants

Plans

I checked the hash first thing in the morning and decided i would do it if I got home from work at a reasonable hour. I didn't get home til 8:30 so i decided I couldn't be bothered. Just before 10pm, after a few beers and a few toasted egg, pesto and cheese toasted sandwiches with my house mates I decided I would do it. As I was about to leave I was distracted by my other house mate who is in India, needing his credit card number to book flights. I didn't end up leaving home til 10:30

Expedition

I left home at 22:30 for a 40km ride plus 1.5km walk. I realised this was going to be cutting it very close but I have recently discovered riding at night time is a lot of fun, mainly as a result of the all night Warragul hash 2013-01-08_-38_145, there's a lot less traffic, more wildlife, less hot sun. This was a rather uneventful hash riding along well made roads which I knew well for most of the trip. The most interesting thing that happened on the way there was discovering that all (maybe not all but at least four) the signs in the suburb of Keilor Park have been rotated 90 degrees. This confused me somewhat and delayed me by about five minutes as I had to stop to check the map even though i was fairly sure I knew where I was going then i followed a sign to a toilet which I never found. I continued on my ride at what I thought was an appropriate pace but apparently was not. I checked the clock and it was 23:50 with 6km as the crow flies to go. I rode as fast as I could from here knowing it was useless. I arrived at the closest point on the road closest to the hash at 23:59 with 1.4k of paddocks to go. I hid my bike in some long grass and walked to the hash. Half a dozen barbed wire fences later I was there at 00:30. I made it back to my bike with out climbing over any fences, this seems to be a recurring theme, it's always easier to get out than in.

I rode home rather slowly as I was quite tired. While I was riding through Keilor I saw an animal run across the road. I think it must have been a fox but it looked like a possum or some kind of similar marsupial but far to large. It had a full size rabbit in it's mouth so it probably wasn't a possum and drop bears don't tend to come so close to the city. My only stop on the way home was when my alarm went off at 01:30 (09:30 new york time) to check the new hashes just incase it was important or nearby.