Run #21 The Coming of Age Run Rehashed

About 2.10pm Sunday October 21st, 2007, mobile rings, it’s Doggie, “Aaah Pushup, I’m about half an hour into setting the run and I seem to have my foot in what I assume is a wild boar trap”. “……….O…..K…., well I’m about to leave, so I guess we’ll just follow the trail and find you, just wait there, OK?” It took 30 minutes before I was able to steal a cab from a Chinese father and daughter combination, and I was just a little offended when my story about a friend on the mountain in a boar trap was not believed, but maybe it was a language problem after all. The cab driver ignored my suggested route, choosing to join the scenic log jam of vehicles in Beishan Lu. Now Acro’s over the top punctuality can be intimidating at times, but on this occasion came in quite handy as she and Cigar arrived at about the same time as virgin Aimie, Pelagic, Bottom Feeder and virgin Miki. So Acro, Cigar and Miki took off to find the feral Doggie and so to report back to the Lingyin arch as to the state of the nation. Your scribe appeared about this time, jumped out of a cab and approached a likely looking chap with the word Police on his cap, handed him the phone with Acro on the other end, and hence started phase 1 of the endless pointless and fruitless discussions with members of the emergency services (two earnest and helpful gentleman in non-specific uniform (NSU) notwithstanding). Soon afterwards the ground party of 4 came together, and reception permitting, was joined by increasingly strident calls from Acro as to the state of things on the mountain. BF made good progress with one NSU who escorted the straggle to the police station. Ah, but it transpired that it was the wrong police station, so the group then straggled across the bus station to the entrance of the cable car where a police car and ambulance had drawn up. Cigar then decamped from the scene of the “incident” to join and then lead the rescue party in, and arrived breathlessly to find a large milling group of Police and NSUs being entertained by an increasingly irritated bunch of laowai, and of course Aimie, trying to describe the situation and obtain some tools with which to remove the encumbrance on Doggies foot. The police refused to admit they had a tyre lever in their police car, and when asked by Aimie what they did when they got a flat tire said that they just rang up and someone came to get them; in retrospect it makes sense. I couldn’t find any tools on the ambulance either. Anyway, Aimie was repeatedly told that the man with the release tool was coming up to the mountain, and would join us there. Wild boar might fly! One NSU appeared with a hack saw and a spare blade, which I guess may have been useful to remove Doggies foot, but those blades did not look Swedish. So the various parties of laowai, NSUs and assorted others straggled off not knowing who was following whom. Aimie negotiated with a kindly lady who gave up the only tools of the household, a dodgy looking garden digger and some metal thing, but there was no time to do more, because all this took so much time. BF picked up some bricks and together with some lumps of wood the hashers easily outpaced the NSUs to find the prone Doggie with Acro and Miki. Unfortunately there was no time for a good laugh, or even to get a series of group photos around the feral Doggie, shots evidently missing from the album. Miki had had the time to examine the workings of the crude but effective trap, despite Doggie speaking to him in less than polite terms; well he is the GM. Anyway, several sets of hands, feet, bricks and odd tools all concentrated power sufficiently for the errant foot to be released. Bloody lucky though, because if the barbs had caught skin it would have made a real mess of the foot, and made the removal of the foot by the system eventually used impossible. Then either the hacksaw or a small jack would have been the solution. Then a forester looking chap appeared holding some small tool, which, knowing what we know now would have been useless. He managed to lay claim to the trap, with the digger firmly in it’s grip, and the metal thing borrowed from the kindly lady and took off down the mountain. Your scribe’s concern was the metal thing and digger, so called him back, and then went after him to retrieve said items, but he took off, dropping the trap but escaping with the metal thing. Still can’t work this out. Doggie then found that he was OK to limp down the mountain and washed out creek bed, along with his retinue of NSUs, the ice cream van attendant, some others, the now not so kindly lady and the hash to gain his 15 minutes of fame as 2 TV crews vied for his attention. Doggie’s Chinese failed him at the crucial interview moment, and Bottom Feeder stepped into the breach, embellishing the drama with tales of wild boar munching on the prone Doggie as he waited for rescue. The kindly lady was fearfully upset about her metal thing: apologies and RMB were not enough. Finally Aimie was able to explain what happened to her metal thing and with a few RMB in her pocket she left mollified. She doesn’t know it but her contribution was vital. After numerous photos in the fading light, check out the gallery, it was off to the Maya in an unofficial taxi van for a few pints and another first rate Acronymph ordering effort at the FengDu. As for the run, more comment when Doggie actually completes it. It was good so far. The press the following day described the incident, drawing on interviews with the police and Miki who they called on his mobile. They also described 3 previous incidents in the last few years where serious injuries were incurred, Doggie being lucky in the extreme. So with this in mind, it was comforting to see how much the NSUs had learned from these previous incidents not. Equally it was impressive how much time they spent examining the trap, learning it’s workings so that WHEN it happens again, they would be much better prepared, not. So HZH3 learns, look after your own.