Interhash 2000 was held in Hobart, Tasmania during February and we decided to combine the Interhash with a month long holiday in Australia including ten days in Tasmania, a week in Sydney, a few days on a dive boat in the Coral Sea and the remainder in Port Douglas. Our timing was good as we arrived during an extremely long dry spell of weather, which meant we had a fantastic ten days visiting various parts of Tasmania and then great weather for the Interhash weekend.

The first run was a red dress run on the Thursday through the centre of Hobart; fortunately the Tasmanian government suspended a law prohibiting men dressing in women’s clothing for the occasion! Friday night was the official opening at the Derwent Conference Centre followed by runs on the Saturday and Sunday. There were actually 21 runs to choose from ranging from short through medium to the ‘Gut Buster’, with a total of 80 buses to move the 3,847 runners to and from the run sites. Each run was followed by a circle with beer and bbq and then back to the Conference Centre for dinner, drinks (shiraz by the pint mug for me) and entertainment.

The scenery on the runs was absolutely superb and the Hashers eccentric in the extreme! Mid way through one run, we ran up a hill and there was a Hasher sat beneath a tree banging a set of bongoes - why? Did I mention one of the runs was clothing optional? (Gave that one a miss!) The best of the entertainment, easily eclipsing the well rehearsed, choreographed, far too professional acts, was the Synchronised Dogs - three wind up dogs jumping backwards together...and, when one fell off the table and was brought back in on a stretcher by the St John’s Ambulance on the next evening, it brought the house down.

Some trivia: 68,000 litres of beverages were consumed - that’s 18 litres per person, 12,000 sausages, 3,600 wallaby burgers, 2,400 jacket spuds and 100 kilos of potato chips (crisps)!