It was a beautiful day, the sun was streaming through the trees, the birds were cheeping, what a gorgeous day for an adventure. The children were happy, excited and raring to get going on their pirate treasure trail.
What child doesn’t like a treasure hunt and to be honest, what adult could resist one too? We discovered you can buy treasure trails for various parts of the country. You download a map and instructions with clues for you to follow. We chose a trail in Burley about a pirate who lost his buried treasure. We had to follow the clues to find the treasure location, before he woke up from his sleep.
The children couldn’t wait to get started, we were off on a pirate adventure. Hugging their maps, shouting arrrgh me hearties, they headed through the trees in search of their first location. We found it quite easily, which of course excited the children.
The next clue was read and we were off again, on a mission. We headed along a path, through the trees, over mounds finding adventure everywhere we went. The children came up with all sorts of adventures en route, trying to stay quiet so we didn’t wake the sleeping pirate. However, I must confess, they found that a little tricky, as my children are never quiet. We saw pirate ships, treasure islands and many scallywags on our travels. The children’s imaginations came alive.
A few more clues were found and decisions had to be made which way to go. At times this was quite a debate.
We walked through woods and along paths, which quickly became swamps with crocodiles in. We strolled along country lanes, passing many pirate ships.
Treasure was found along the way, in many different forms, from sticks and leaves to the most enormous pinecones I have ever seen.
We crossed bridges with trolls under, though what trolls have to do with pirates, I have no idea. The children enjoyed reading the clues and trying to work them out, though I must admit my children were a little young for the clues, but it really didn’t affect their enjoyment of their pirate adventure.
By the end of the trail we found the location of the buried treasure, even though we actually didn’t manage to complete all the clues along the way and according to the children, we achieved it before the sleeping pirate woke up. Wow, what an adventure. Look how much fun you can have when you step inside a child’s imagination.
That’s an amazing trail, what a fabulous imagination kids have!
It looks adorable, watching your children doing this I wish we had had our wildlife trail up when you came to visit us, I know they would adore it. I love how their imaginations are so easily fired.
Treasure hunts are a definite must, especially when it’s done in the outdoors like this one 🙂 Arrr!
These sound wonderful – I’d heard about the trails but my daughter is still a little young to try them. I love the way it inspires the imagination though (all bridges have trolls under, right?)
We’ve had fun on a few of the erasure trails in Oxfordshire. I don’t think we’ve ever managed to find all the clues either though – done of them can be quite tricky!
This sounds like so much fun and your kids look like they are having a blast! What a great idea 🙂
That does sound fun, I didn’t know you could do it either. We have made up our own treasure trails or gone geocaching in the past but I will have to look into this.
Sticks really are the best pirate treasure!
Never tried one of these trails, but they look great fun for a sunny day.