#4 Green Tea Restaurant – Rehashed

 Turnout 7

The Green Tea restaurant is a great venue, when you find it. Scribe had only been there previously at night in a self created fog, and so, having abandoned the cab some couple of Ks short of the destination with crook leg and carton of biggies called co-hare Pete for help who fortuitously was passing in own cab, equally piloted by a cabbie new to Lingyin Rd. The lane attained, at the end of which was found a restaurant that looked very little like that from memory, however it did not prevent beer and belongings being stashed behind the bar, albeit the wrong bar, an error not made by the pack assembling later at the correct establishment. Bottom Feeder, in the search for a private changing room, quaintly chose the middle of the adjoining tea field to change his strides, while negotiations to secure ice for the on on drinks drifted on, and on. The pack was finally away at 16.25, and felt their way initially past the Hangzhou Tyrolean quarter, before a check, and into a tea field, on the other side of which was found a track past the now ubiquitous tombs. Your scribe is loathe to inform the pack that at this stage the hares remained unsure as to the run taking either a clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Some rather suspect bearings taken from lake landmarks and correlated against a complementary hotel map turned out to absolutely useless, and the pack duly found itself on the summit of Tianma Hill, now hash-named Serendipity Peak. Those romantic souls in the pack marked this spot for future reference, but for today it was just on on down. Trailmarking blunders along this next stretch of stone track are probably best left unreported. Then off the stone track onto some ancient byway, descending finally into the classic bamboo forest, and then further along Nongfu creek. The trail meandered back to Meiling Road about 100m from where the outbound trail entered the tea fields, breaking any number of run setting rules, and confusing half the pack with an ambiguous mark, Little Drunken Apple choosing the letter of the mark rather than the proximity of home as his guide. (Rule  – never overestimate the intelligence of the pack). 

Meanwhile back at the Green Tea, ice was in short supply so warm beer was on the menu for the circle, a suitable location chosen which ended up a car park. Nate, mate of BF joined the circle from somewhere 24 hours train travel distant, while the pack exhibited the usual personality defects which made the circle down downs slip past, warm beer and all. HPs name was amended to Acronymph, which passed the test by not being liked at all by the recipient, while Natalie, answering 11 phone calls in a row, against all circle rules, was named Phone Box which may equally have something to do with her hang ups. This name also passed that important test. The booking time at the Green Tea had meanwhile passed, and the table lost, so the GM Pete’s decision was “back to the Maya