Treasure trail

A few weeks ago, under the strong influence of flu, and missing being outside as it travelled through our family, I found out about Treasure Trails online. Still being relatively unfamiliar with our local area, I chose a few of these trails in various local places, ordered them to be posted to us, and have been waiting for an opportunity for us to try one of them out, well aware that this would mean getting all three children out of the house at the same time, and staying out for some time as the trails vary, but are mostly around 90minutes long apparently.

Today was the day- misty, slightly damp with the odd drizzly attempts at rain, we ventured out to a nearby town which is known for being dog friendly, looks appealing and is full of local produce with an unusually bustling town centre.

We were well prepared for this. Once we had faced the battle of our eldest leaving the house (his turn today), had the dog ready in her coat and harness, had the special needs buggy with it's raincover, footplate, sun cover and rain cover ready, had all three ipads with battery, charger, downloaded choice of programmes, coats, boots, gloves, pencils, ear defenders, dummy, drinks and the actual trail itself, off we went.

We managed to park in the narrowest space possible- quite how they expect people to exit a vehicle in these skinny spaces without touching the neighbouring car is a mystery of its' own. As it was, we did the usual of emptying the contents of the van quickly and assembling it all in the car park before fully reversing into the space. Thank goodness for sliding doors!

As I was busy trying to strap our youngest into the pushchair, secure the ipad, dog and raincover, the people from the car next to us returned. I quickly scooted the pushchair over to allow them plenty of room to get to their boot, but they just stood there staring at us. No emotions or words evident, just out and out staring at us. I chose to ignore them both and carried on making sure my daughter was safe and comfortable. We then had to wait for them to stop staring and get into their car before we could open our sliding door for our other children to get out. Part of me willed them to open it and hurry the people up, but I am glad they waited.

The trail itself is an A5 booklet with many clues and directions inside, with the aim of identifying the murderer and their weapon of choice. If you get stuck at any time you can text a free number for help up to three times during the trail. When (or if) you complete the trail and identify your culprit then you enter your details online and they tell you if you were correct or not, as well as giving you all the clue answers.

Some of the clues were straightforward, others more cryptic in nature (not my forte). Once we got into it things became easier, as it led us through parts of the town we would never have found without the trail. At times, our son was able to take control and lead the way which helped reduce his anxiety about not being in control of being out, which in turn made things a little easier for us all for a while.

We spent three hours walking around the small town centre, looking for clues, numbers and names that people wouldn't even notice without this goal. Our little dog managed to walk for a total of around a minute in all, preferring to be carried or riding in the buddy with our daughter. It reminded me of the struggles of an old style town centre, with pavements cluttered by advertising sandwich boards, tables and chairs, and people standing there for a chat, oblivious to the pushchair coming their way- I had this exact experience when my eldest was little and we lived in an old cobbled town where it was safer to walk on the roads than on the pavements.

When our anxious son was carrying the puppy he was visibly more relaxed, even commenting himself on how she was keeping him happier (and warmer). A sneaky pasty was needed at one point to keep him motivated, but £1.60 is well worth avoiding a hangry tween with PDA who did not want to be out any more and was teetering on the edge.

Our aspie daughter loved the clues and the routine and ordered nature of the trail, a lot of it was beyond her years, but I was able to simplify things for her to be able to solve clues and spot answers we were searching for.

Some of the trails we have left currently are spy trails and I can't wait for an opportunity to try our next one- although I am not so sure about the enthusiasm of everyone here.


Incase you are interested- we did get the answers right in the end, and rewarded ourselves with a visit to an old style sweet shop. We are the proud owners of a certificate showing we completed our first trail.