Treasure Hunts

A popular summer Sunday pass time as more people got their cars was the treasure hunt.

The hunt was prepared by a couple of members of the House who would drive around Devon looking for conspicuous landmarks and then creating cryptic clues to information that could be gleaned at said landmark.

Included in the circuit was a challenge to find various “items” on the way around, and a prize for the most unusual item.

Teams of three or four (or in the case of John Brand in his Sprite, one or two) would form up, often including girl-friends. Then at the pre-defined times the cars would set off following the route described by the tormenters … sorry hunt designers.

Some of the items I remember being challenged to find on one such hunt was a piece of barbed wire, a string vest (our car chose to crochet one, I believe several people took to raiding washing lines), various items of greenery (ok if you knew the different types of leaf and wild flower) etc.

Marks were awarded for distance … the planners had recorded their mileage and points were deducted for each 10 miles difference between yours and their mileage) – this did result in some skulduggery including people disconnecting the speedo cable.

The “unusual item” was probably the riskiest challenge as can be assessed from the photo below.