A beautiful antique Golden Oyster, along with a cash prize, waits to be claimed in The Golden Oyster Armchair Treasure Hunt by Joanne Bartley. This hunt was released in May 2020 and will continue on until someone solves the 22 clues and discovers the hidden location, somewhere in Whitstable, UK. You do NOT need to travel there though. All can be solved and claimed from the ‘armchair’ of your home!
UPDATE: THIS TREASURE HUNT HAS ENDED
How exciting! Let’s learn more about this fun challenge and chance to claim an awesome prize in the following Six Questions! Enjoy!
Six Questions with Jo:
- 1Q) Thank you Jo for participating in these Six Questions. It’s great to be able to learn more about the hunt, and you, as its creator. Can you share when you first thought about creating The Golden Oyster hunt and what it was which inspired you to do so?
I love all kinds of treasure hunts, and I’ve spent a lot of time on the ‘Sur la trace de la chouette d’or’ (On the trail of the Golden Owl) treasure hunt, which is all freely available and translated into English. It’s probably the hardest hunt there is, but I love a challenge! I also recently spent a lot of hours on the Thrill of the Chase hunt. The treasure being found is amazing news. I’m grieving now because I’ll miss all the fun I had through that hunt, especially as it was the first hunt my daughter and I worked on together. We were planning our first trip to the US and everything. It’s bittersweet news, the winner deserves massive congratulations and I’m happy for them, but it was such a great hunt and now it’s over. Still, there are other hunts out there, the thrill of the chase doesn’t ever end, there’s always more treasure to find.
I started making my Golden Oyster hunt when the coronavirus pandemic struck, things were really strict here, we were only allowed out once a day. I thought people in my town might like a treasure hunt to play with while they were stuck indoors. So I got busy making it, as a way to give some fun to people while they were in lockdown. My husband told me local people wouldn’t play, he said solving clues was just a “niche interest.” I have to say he was right! I guess treasure hunters are a special breed, creative and curious, and most people in my town would rather just watch Netflix!
There are a few keen players in Whitstable, but I’ve found most of the players are from outside my county. It’s really nice that the book is winging its way all over the world, I’ve shipped books to more than a dozen countries now. I designed the puzzles so that no local knowledge is necessary and set the postage fee low so that’s not a barrier to taking part. It’s fun to think that people all over the world are looking at my home town on google maps. It’s a beautiful place and with such interesting history.
- 2Q) The prize is such a beautiful unique treasure! Where did you discover this ‘Golden Oyster’? And did you have the name of the hunt before or after its discovery? How can people get involved in the hunt?
My hometown Whitstable, is an old fishing community and famous for producing the best oysters in England, so a golden oyster seemed to fit the location. I did talk to a local jeweller about making a golden oyster prize but I wanted to get the hunt off the ground quickly and that was a slow process, so I found an oyster brooch from an antique dealer. I’ve always loved old things and it’s from Victorian times when there was a fashion to wear brooches and charms in the shape of insects, animals and sea creatures. I added the brooch as a prize from me to the treasure hunters, this isn’t a profit making venture, it’s done for a love of clues and puzzles. There is a cash prize too, because I think treasure hunts are better with some real ‘treasure’. The clever winner deserves something for their effort! It’s not a huge amount but you could still treat yourself if you win. If people want to get involved they can read all about it at goldenoyster.co.uk.
- 3Q) On the GoldenOyster.co.uk website, you mention there are 22 clues to solve in the hunt. They are basically the pages of the book. Can you say how they work together- do the solved clues form a riddle like in Masquerade or do they each offer something different towards deducing the location? Or what can you say about the clues?
It’s not really a big secret that 21 of the pages reveal 21 locations in my town. The trick is to work out how they reveal the eventual location of the treasure. I can’t say too much more for obvious reasons! The clue pages are images with border text, its a classic armchair hunt format. It’s not giving too much away to say that some imagery and text is more important than the rest, but working out which bits matter and how they fit together is all part of the game.
- 4Q) What did you enjoy most about creating the Golden Oyster Treasure hunt? Do you feel someone new to the armchair treasure hunting world could solve the clues and claim the treasure just as easily as someone who has worked on them for years? What is the expected timeframe for the hunt?
My favourite part of creating the hunt was the satisfaction of making the style of hunt I love to solve myself. I am hopeless at codes and ciphers, but I like hunts that are clever combinations of ideas and concepts, using creative links, wordplay and lateral thinking.
I know that setting a timeframe for a hunt is the hardest thing for any clue creator to do! How can you judge the difficulty if you know the answer and can’t see it from the outside? Max Valentin created the Golden Owl hunt 27 years ago and it’s still not been solved. Forrest Fenn’s hunt ran a decade, while Masquerade took three years and its eventual solution was possibly not solved fairly. On the other hand I have a friend who created a cipher puzzle for a promotion at work, it offered a significant prize but was solved in just a few hours when it was supposed to last for weeks. So these things are always hard to judge.
I expect every hunt setter has a fear that their hours of work will be wasted because the clues are too easy, the temptation is to make it really convoluted and obscure. So I put a lot of thought into how to make a hunt that wouldn’t be solved quickly, but which shouldn’t become stuck. I think solving this hunt needs creativity and dedicated effort. Those are certainly the sort of skills that deserve reward! I don’t think being new to treasure hunting should be a barrier, although one friend looked at it and asked ‘where are the instructions.’ I guess being used to the armchair hunt genre does help!
I’d say the hunt will last a few months at least. But Max Valentin said that and look what happened!
- 5Q) You have another website dedicated to the 27 year old ‘On The Trail of the Golden Owl’ treasure hunt. Why do you feel this hunt remains unsolved still today, and when did you first begin your search for the Golden Owl? Do you think it will someday be found?
I think the Golden Owl is really interesting because a community has formed around it and many of its clues are solved without a doubt. Yet, like most long running hunts, people are going over the same old lines of enquiry when clearly these are not working. As an example, most people accept that Max Valentin needed treasure seekers to put lines on a Michelin map of France, with a few of those lines being quite clear. Yet no one seems to be wondering what the lines might eventually draw. As another example there are mentions of light and openings, but not many hunters are thinking about the themes of this hunt and how they fit the solution. I think almost all hunts have themes that tie the idea together in some way. It’s not usually a disparate set of clues there is some idea or concept behind it all.
Now English speaking treasure hunters are getting interested in finding the golden owl because Josh Gates featured it on Expedition Unknown. I think that makes it more likely this long running hunt will be solved soon. The new hunters are at a disadvantage through not speaking French, but there’s some advantages too as the translated clues are less about language and more about ideas, this means the clues can be seen in whole new ways.
- 6Q) Besides Armchair Treasure Hunting what else do you enjoy doing? Do you have plans to make another hunt in the future?
I organise a writing group in my town and like to write stories. I’m half way through a novel when I’m not getting distracted by ideas for the golden owl! If I made another hunt it would be a different style, this one was quite traditional and I’d like to try something a bit more quirky. I like the idea of a time element, something quite escape room-like, or perhaps more story based.
I’m fascinated by one of the first ever treasure hunts that took place in England in 1904, some of the medallions for that are still missing, so maybe finding these could form part of a new hunt? I also like making board games. I’m currently working on one that needs a cat to play, it’s all very silly with moving around the board depending on what the cat does! I love all kinds of games and puzzles, and making things. I think everyone who tackles treasure hunts are problem solving creative types. It’s just the best fun to mix logic and ideas together. I also love the research involved and learning new things about far away places. Treasure hunting is definitely my favourite hobby.