A family geography game inspired by the This Way Up book by the Map Men. We wrote down some directions, went to a place we didn’t know well but wanted to know better and played. It turned out to be a fun abstract way to explore a new area. I’m writing it up in case any one else fancies a go.

The inspiration

The Map Men’s This way up book included a chapter trying to negotiate London using a map of Paris. It reminded me of the joy I used to have as a teenager in finding my way round an area I didn’t know well. I think we’ve lost that a bit these days so we thought we’d try and recreate it in a game.

Step 1: Write out some directions

It’s most fun if everyone whose playing does this. There were 3 of us (my mum, B and me) and we each wrote out 8 different directions, put them in a jar and mixed them up. We all interpreted the task a bit differently. I wrote simple directions based on the geography of a town. B wrote hers based around the nature we’d find on the way. My mum did the same one several times. All worked and the differences were the most fun bit.

Step 2: Find the right location

It could be anywhere but I reckon it’s most fun if you do it somewhere you’d a) like to walk round more and b) don’t know very well. It would be perfect if you were in a strange town or city on holiday. We’re not, so after some deliberation, we went for the old centre of a nearby town which we bypass frequently but don’t often stop at.

Step 3: The rules

You could definitely make up some fun ones. We kept it simple as follows:

• The youngest goes first (B, as the youngest, always insists on this) and pulls a direction out of the jar.
• We all complete the instruction together.
• When we’ve agreed it’s completed the next person pulls an instruction out, and we complete that one.
• We agreed we could skip 1 direction and keep it for later provided we all agreed we needed to.

Step 4: Playing the game

It worked surprisingly well. I was worried we’d end up going round in circles or ending up back at the same place all the time but the different types of clues we’d all written stopped that.

We ended up exploring a lovely churchyard and found lovely back lanes we never knew existed. We also spent ages looking for left turns (which only happened when we’d walked down a cul-de-sac, round it and back to the main road again) and pedestrian lanes (we did find one! It took about thirty minutes).

Along the way we negotiated our answers (and sometimes just disagreed), went off in different directions and worked together as a team. It took well over an hour but we all seemed to enjoy it.

Our ‘directions clues’

Here’s what we wrote. I think we’ll be even more creative next time. What would you write?

• Find the nearest park/wood/forest and go as far as it goes and collect a thing
• Go down the nearest lane and then turn right
• Find a shop
• Go back to where you started
• Cross a road
• Look around the corner and choose which way to go
• Go somewhere you would like to be
• Find a tree with nothing on it next to a tree with leaves
• Go to the tallest tree you can see
• Find a lamp post
• Take the 2nd road or path on the left
• Spot the nearest form of water
• Go down stairs and follow where it leads to
• Find a post box
• Find something that says 67 and go down the nearest path from it
• Go in a new direction (you haven’t gone before) until the third road or path off
• See the nearest wild animal that is in reach, chase it away and follow it
• Look round the corner and choose which way to go