Al Marqadh

First day in Dubai, and already found a hash to run. The Creek H3 is celebrating their 2000th run this weekend, which has been postponed twice from 2020, to 2021, and finally to be executed this weekend. Going back 2 years, I had been signed up to attend as I was making my way through the Middle East just prior to COVID. Having been the only international visitor to get into Bahrain for INTERGULF 2020, I was due to fly out to Dubai the next weekend . . . then all the flights were shut down pretty much worldwide. I ended up spending a very interesting month in Bahrain, followed by the longest single day commercial flight itinerary in recorded history.

I departed Bahrain at 0130 on 13 April for the first leg to Paris. CDG was nearly empty, with no services open, so sat and waited for the second leg from Paris to Los Angeles. We had 20 people on a Boeing 777 for this 14+ hour flight. Thirty minutes after takeoff, the pilot announced that we were all invited to the Business Class section for the remainder of the flight. Very thankful for that, we had beds, movies, and free food and drink. Arriving in LAX, there were a few services open (this is still 13 April mind you), and after a bit of a layover, I was on my third and final leg out to Honolulu. Arriving in the early evening, I managed to complete a 32 hour travel plan all in one calendar day, flying backwards in time.

I had been on the world tour for 6 months at that point, and had already purchased tickets to the UAE, Qatar, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Scotland, and Trinidad that were all lost due to being booked on a wide variety of airlines and agents (some hotel bookings and car rentals were able to be cancelled, but still lost about $2500). Last year I was able to get to Azerbaijan and Scotland, this year I have now hashed in the UAE, Qatar next week, and Trinidad next month . . . that only leaves Lebanon to tackle at some point in the future to clean up that original loss. Can’t complain, life is grand.

So, that brings me to Dubai, and the finally taking place Creek H3 2000th Run weekend. It was almost a miss, as I had to execute a rapid passport renewal as all my pages were full, and got my new passport 24 hours before heading to the airport for this trip. We had 22 hashers on last night’s trail (the Creek H3 #2084 was the regular weekly hash, run on the outskirts of Dubai (Sharjah), listed as the 7th fastest growing city in the world (you can see in the pictures that the trail we ran last night will be consumed by construction in the next few weeks).

As they have done for decades, the trail was mostly marked with orange painted straws stuck into the sand. Checks are spray painted on rocks, along with the false trail markings. We had an enjoyable 6 Kms trail with the world’s tallest building hovering in the distance. Circle lasted longer than the trail, but it was great fun, and seeing old friends Ratshit and Likk’mm, while meeting many new friends. All in all, a great day, then the jetlag set in, and after a shower I was off to laalaa land for some much needed sleep.

The weekend is just beginning, we have events planned for Friday evening, main event Saturday, survivors run on Sunday, and a final run with the Desert H3 on Monday . . . then off to Doha. Life is good.Read more