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Shirley and I took part in the treasure hunt on 8th June and, after more than 20 years of driving around various Arabian deserts where there were minimal navigational aids, I thought that the hunt would be a piece of cake, and that we would have no difficulty in easily romping home in the first two or three. How wrong I was!
Problems started in the pub car park with the first clue, and they continued for the entire hunt. Travelling over desert tracks with only oil drum markers at indeterminate intervals was much easier than this event, and on those few occasions when I did become lost in the desert, all I had to do was to look up to the sun to determine my directions. Not so on the hunt! As if by divine pre-arrangement, there was no sun to be seen through the continuous heavy rain. In order to facilitate things, we had brought an Ordinance Survey Map with us but, in unmarked Shropshire lanes, we could not differentiate between one lane and another and we decided that all OS maps were a complete waste of time. One thing, however, on our unplanned detours, we passed through some spectacular scenery in areas of Shropshire that we had not known existed.
On a slightly more serious note, this was an excellent event and was definitely one of the best in which we have taken part over many years. For those who were able to identify them, the clues were very difficult and had been given a lot of thought. The instructed directions on the route sheets were very clever, and in some cases, very precise. In common with several other participants, we did not follow the directions as accurately as we might have done, and sometimes we found ourselves going in the completely wrong direction.
The event was most enjoyable, even if it caused near divorce amongst some husband and wife teams. A big thank you to all those who put in so much work to make this a successful event, particularly, to the route setter, Keith Griffiths. Also a ‘thank you’ to the bar-b-q chef, `American` Mark, whose hamburgers were delicious.
As a footnote, Shirley and I did manage to romp home easily to the finish, albeit, over an hour late and definitely not in the top three. The final indignity was to find that our son and wife, visiting from outside Shropshire, had come home in second place!
An excellent fun day, and one that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Hopefully, this was the first of many more such events to come.
Brian Rodgers - Audi Quatro Coupe And the winners were......
Phil & Linda Stocking.
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