So recently me and my brother went up to the Lake District to stay with my Grandma and Granda. My Auntie also came from Newcastle to spend the week with us with her little dog. We wanted to spend the week doing loads of fun things and we searched everywhere coming up with suggestions like the Harris tweed museum or the pencil museum (both were my Auntie’s ideas). It was a really nice day and so we felt like doing something outdoors as sunny days are rare in England. We searched all corners of the internet until my Auntie finally found a site called Treasure Trails, this site provided us with a set of clues for which ever area we chose. We decided upon Keswick as we thought we knew Penrith well and we were interested in discovering new places in the Lake District.
There are more than 1,200 trails all over the UK just waiting to be explored as well as a few car and cycle trails that cover a wider area. There are three themes for the trails spy, murder mystery and treasure hunt. We did a spy theme trail and had great fun cracking the code. The trail is a series of clues that you have to use engravings, plaques and signs around the area to solve as well as being guided round by easy to understand directions. As the walk is around 2 hours long you get a real feel
for the are you are in as well as discovering loads of new places you have never even heard of.
During the trail we were taken all around Keswick and had a really fun time discovering new places that would also be worth a visit at some point. We started the trail in a car park and although the suggested time was around 2 hours we thought we were really clever as we finished the first few clues within a few minutes. The clues became increasingly more difficult and we began to take longer on each one. We knew there was the possibility to text the a phone number the be given the answer to the clue but we were determined to complete the whole thing with out any help, except we did ask 1 or 2 people along the way.
The first clue we were really stumped by we looking for a date up high engraved on one of the houses, we continued to be puzzled by the clue as an increasing amount of time passed by and all we could do was wander round the street thinking we must be blind. The date was finally located with a drain pipe going through the middle and I'm proud to admit that I was the one who found the date and solved the clue.
The first clue we were really stumped by we looking for a date up high engraved on one of the houses, we continued to be puzzled by the clue as an increasing amount of time passed by and all we could do was wander round the street thinking we must be blind. The date was finally located with a drain pipe going through the middle and I'm proud to admit that I was the one who found the date and solved the clue.
We continued the walk around Keswick and managed to miss one clue by a good few streets finally realising we had missed it, me and Granda were sent of to find the clue with the rest of the lazy lot only had to walk across the road to reach the next clue. Now the clues took us off the main roads and to some more quiet streets, we arrived at one of the last few clues and were looking for an engraving in the stone in the floor. When we misunderstood the clue we began to panic as we thought that a car had parked over it, we were just getting ready to send my brother under the car to get the clue when he pointed out the we had all been looking at the stone the wrong way round and it turned out the clue was a good few feet away from the car. We finally finished the trail with a puzzling final clue that could only be solved by Granda quite a while over the 2 hour expected time. We finally cracked the code and submitted it to the website. Soon after submitting our answer we received an email saying that they were glad we had enjoyed or so much.
I think the idea of the trails is really good and that it is something different that I have ever seen before. I think it is great that they are so widely spread throughout the country and are a great thing to do if you are moving to a new area or are just away on holiday. It is a really nice thing to do when the weather is nice and as well as keeping your brain active also keeps you active. By the end I could hardly believe how long we has been out for. It is definitely something I would love to do again in a different area as well as trying a different theme. If there was one thing I would suggest it is that they recommend a place to eat along the way or suggest bringing a picnic and snacks for younger children as they may get hungry on the walk. All in all I think that was a great experience that all the family enjoyed and could take part in, it was also dog friendly which meant that we could really enjoy the trail and the walk.
I'm so glad you all had a great time, can't believe you didn't visit the Pencil Museum!!! Looking forward to your next post!!!
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Lovely account of your day with Treasure Trails!
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