The 2007 Treasure Hunt as recollected by Richard and Joyce

(Or alternative Title - What Colour is sand anyway )

The 2007 Treasure hunt took place on Sunday 4th November and followed a slightly different format to previous times. We met at Sarn Park services but the hunt did not actually begin until we had parked up at Swansea Marina. All the clues were found on foot which resulted in a very relaxing and must be said, safer and less 'navigationally stressful' experience.

The Champion family had done all the hard work - Malcolm, Pauline and their daughter Sarah. On the day Malcolm was, yet again, working abroad, this time in Norway so Pauline and Sarah assumed strict school 'headmistress' roles !

The group photo is interesting - taken at Sarn prior to departure. Joyce and I took a shot each on my camera so there was not one with all of us in. The picture shown here is a result of some photo editing whereby I imported Joyce from the photo I took and merged her next to me onto the one she took – if you know what I mean. Its only now, 2 days later, that I have realised I've forgotten her legs !!! - but If I had not just said you would never have known would you? ...

The very first clue as we strolled on to the promenade around Swansea bay was "What is the colour of the sand?" - most people like us thought this was a catch. I mean you would never ask someone the colour of grass would you ? Most of the time was spent looking for this secret clue, including for some, returning to the start later to have another look. In our case we had made the deadly and doomed mistake of asking a local who said "There used to be a club as part of the hotel that was called the sands" - this didn't help. However Joyce and I eventually focussed on a sculpture / mural thingy on the side of the said hotel which looked as though it had been designed by an alcoholic, LSD crazed architect / artist on a bad day. It depicted, sun sky, ships and waves all in a pucky rust colour but below the wave bit was a bit of blue, so we though we had it cracked. Others were led on equally and totally wrong paths of woe.... mistress's Pauline and Sarah eventually revealed that they would accept any description of the sand colour such as yellow / gold etc........... I think this is why Malcolm disappeared to Norway - work my foot !

Walking around the bay along the promenade and then the Marina area was great fun. If you have not been there it is worth a visit with lots to see and do.

Homage is paid to many aspects of Swansea history including Dylan Thomas, the docks, railways and all the post industrial revolution development. The area is well endowed with Cafes and seating areas and there is as they say, something for everyone. We were also lucky with the weather and as the picture shows we had (nearly) total blue sky - in fact it matched the sand very well. The marina contains an assortment of different vessels ranging from private yachts to tugs and lightships.

In total 14 groups took part and most people brought out their classics. After returning to the car park and handing our efforts in for marking we departed for lunch at the Twelve Knights Hotel in Taibach, which was excellent. John and Janet James met us there and enjoyed the meal with us. It was good to see them both - JJ seems to be making a very good post operative recovery and was in high spirits.

Finally, the moment came for Pauline to announce the results and amazingly even though we do not know the colour of sand Joyce and I won ! This committed me to an investment of £10.95 the following day at the 'Under the Escalator' engravers in Merthyr town centre to have our names added to the shield - its remarkable to look at something like that and see entries going back to the mid 80s. I would not like to embarrass Stuart Powell by publicising his result, but suffice to say he's doing the next one.

In summary, this was a great day to venture out with a classic car - no rain, mud or salt and amazingly no sign of seagulls with bowel problems. We got home just as it was going dark and the Cortina only needed the quickest of rinses

Once again its thanks to Pauline, Sarah and Malcolm for all their efforts in organising such a successful club event.

 

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