Our adventures with Treasure Hunts. I’m setting several up this summer for different organisations and B is my tester. The first one, for Friends of Victoria Square…
211 – Testing the Victoria Square Treasure Hunt
Monday 2 June. Sunny. 17°C
The first Trails, Bales and Snails TREASURE HUNT is taking place at Victoria Square in Penarth on Saturday 7 June. For today’s challenge, B is going to test it for me. I think it’s ok but I need a child’s perspective. I’m not giving her ANY help… and we’ll see how long it takes her…
Finding the first clue takes her a while (follow the little path to the log piles) and she is puzzled at first. “What little path?”… then she sees the log piles and is off! Second clue also causes a problem. She starts haring off to the other side of the park… I make a note to specify that all clues are within sight of the next ones…and haul her back on track. She’s off again and this time I don’t catch up with her till 10 (‘An oak tree’).
B: “This is crazy. There’s hundreds of oak trees. How am I meant to find it?”
Kids today don’t want to work! She gets there in the end but we mutually agree there might be a more obvious spot for it. The next time I see her she’s clutching three prizes.
Me: “What did you take them all for?”
B: “You didn’t SAY just take one!”
We’ll put a note on to specify that then. It took her about thirty minutes I think, which is pretty good going.
She thought it was good… so hopefully it is. Anyone around Penarth on Saturday 7 June, come and give it a go?! But only take one prize!
208 – Taking grandma on a treasure hunt
Saturday 7 June. Occasionally torrential. 16°C
It’s the day of the Victoria Square Treasure Hunt and B has volunteered to take her grandma round. It takes a while but they make it. It was quite a good test of what grandma can and can’t manage these days (her sight is worse than we’d realised). She made it through the little forest and out the other side which was the roughest bit.
Elsewhere the heavens opened for a lot of the day but the families who made it out were enthusiastic about it. Oak trees were still a challenge and the final climbing tree eluded some. It’s harder than I realised! Suspect this will be less the case for the next hunt which has a more defined route. B had a lot of fun helping people with clues.
While clearing up there was a lovely moment. I could hear voices, but couldn’t work out where they were and was worried I was removing trail signs half way through for someone… then I tracked them down. At the very top of the starting tree were two teenagers having a serious conversation. They were about ten metres high – higher than I’ve seen anyone get before, and clearly settled in for a long chat. It made me very happy.
