It was a hot sunny afternoon, the 20th of August, when the Addlestone Canoe Club held a Treasure Hunt on the Canal: a fun activity aimed at getting children interested in canoeing – and of course, we went to join in!!!

There were three teams taking part, each with three or four members in it, and the Hunt started just past Coxe’s Lock, next to the Pelican Pub (typical!). Balloons were tied to the boats, and if you managed to get back with any of them “alive” you would earn extra valuable points. We were also given a sheet of paper asking us to collect certain plants and look out for various things on the way.

The first stop was just below the footbridge, where an instructor asked questions and depending on how many you got right you were allotted time to go through two slalom gates (10 points each, 5 if you hit a pole once) and get as many balls through a hoop as possible (10 points each). Then we were given a password. After that it was back up to Coxe’s Lock where we had to do a limbo under a pair of paddles and then choose yellow rubber ducks with name tags with questions hidden underneath. Big ducks were worth 2 points, small ones only 1 point but the questions were easier. For a bonus point, we had to don a helmet with a spike on top and pop two balloons – the first one had water in it and the second one flour (yuck! – Ed.).

Heading back up the Canal towards the Club we were ambushed by the two pirates (Sid and Clare) who were hidden in a corner. They had set up a Canadian canoe as a pirate ship complete with skull flag and were armed with water pistols, sponges and foam balls, attacking every group as they came through.

Finally at the Club, we had to play another game: One member of the team had to be a farmer, another one a chicken, someone else a fox and yet another one was grain. The farmer had to get all of us across the Canal without anybody being eaten. The time it took us to do this was added to the final score.

In the end, we had to solve some cryptic clues to find out where the treasure was. There were some great prizes to top off a brilliant day out!

Thanks to everyone who organised it and I sure am looking forward to next year’s Treasure Hunt! Especially well done to Bob, Steve and Jordan Gray who won the competition. What a day!!!

By Chris Pereira, September 1999