Mad about Hunting!

I started treasure hunting in January 2004. I've heard about this 'hunting hobby' from some friends who used to do it back in 2003, but it was just ear-in-ear-out. Never really thought about joining or finding out more. Not until my company organised one, and some colleagues and I just decided to join it just for fun. Coincidentally, the COC was Chris Foo, one of the Master treasure hunters! :P Needless to say, I was hooked since then!

In that very first hunt, we didn't do too well. We only managed to answer about 60-70% of the questions correctly. But that didn't stop us! We started to look for public hunts online and found Ricky Koo's Hunter's World which gives a calendar year's worth of hunting events. From then on, we constantly checked it and basically signed up to every hunt that we were available for. :)

In all the hunts that we go to, there are always these recurrent hunters. When I say recurrent, I mean hunters that always seem to participate in every hunt. And not just that... the same ones also almost always end up on the podium. Before long, we realised that these were the MASTERS... the 'elite' of the hunting world. These are people who have hunted for at least 10 years and have perfected their hunting skills. The aim was to be as good as them, and I realised it's not an easy task!

Treasure hunting is a skill which can be learnt, but those with a natural aptitude for thinking cryptically definitely have the advantage here. A lot of us (including myself) tend to read clues at face value, and find it rather tough to think 'out of the box'. But it's not an impossible task... after many many many hunts, I find it much easier. It's like studying for an exam! The more practices you do, the easier it gets. Before you know it, one look at the clue and you will know exactly how to crack it. And being able to do that gives me a rush... that's why I keep coming back again and again.

A lot of friends are puzzled over our obsession with treasure hunting. "You're thinking the whole week at work already, and you still want to spend 8+ hours of your weekend solving cryptic clues?! Are you mad?" Haha... I hunt for the challenge... to try to crack the clues, and of course to win. :) There are days when the brain just refuses to function... and those days, we either do really badly or my team mates will have to work a lot harder! :P But there are also days where everything goes well... cracking the clues comes easy and on those days we manage to get on the podium ourselves! Which is a great feeling! Prizes are sometimes good, but most of the times we do not recoup the cost of participation. But even then, I feel it's a great way to spend a weekend. :)

My team and I have been trying to look for ways to improve our hunting skills. It would be great if we could see some Masters in action and to learn from them. Cryptic clues is still our greatest weakness, but I guess this can only be improved with practice. I wonder what the Masters do to get to their current level. I hope we don't need 7 years more of experience before we can reach their level now! :P

Treasure hunting is a lot of fun, for those who enjoy a brain challenge. It involves wordplay, cryptic clues, anagrams and also general knowledge. If you enjoy any of those mentioned, treasure hunting is definitely the pastime for you! See you all at the next hunt! :)