Fellow globetrotters and travel bloggers Carina and Simon from The Wombat Chase (www.wombat-chase.com) joined us for an afternoon of mystery at Freemantle's Escape Hunt.
Freemantle has three different escapes to choose from: The Tavern, The Ship and The Prison. Being in Freemantle, we of course opted for the prison for our first escape challenge.
We were instructed to hand over all of our belongings before being sent back 100 years into a crime scene. A prisoner had escaped from the Freemantle Prison and it was our job to find him and his accomplice. Rumour had it that he had bribed someone inside the prison with a secret stash of gold to help him escape.
With an hour on the clock it is literally a race against time to not only find the guilty suspect but also to escape yourself. There is a scattering of clues and bluffs to crack locks and codes. The pressure was real as the clock was counting down before our eyes. Our hearts raced to find the missing links to connect all of the evidence left behind. Alas we solved the first mystery with great relief, now we were on a roll. With each puzzle solved came another clue and a link to the next puzzle.
With sweat on our brow with 20 minutes remaining we were stumped. We were reluctant to ask for help but we had no choice but to give in and ask for our first clue to solve the next puzzling mystery. After a helpful clue we were so annoyed with our stupidity. If only we had started again from the beginning instead of staring at our ill-fated conclusion.
The task is a lot more difficult than you would think which only added to our frustration. I have to tell you the truth, we didn't make it. I am sat here in prison writing this blog. No, only kidding. Luckily they allowed us an extra 5 minutes in which we uncovered some unexpected treasures and finally managed to escape.
What an awesome concept. In fact, we had such a great experience we went back for more.
The next weekend we booked in to escape from the Ship, the hardest of Freemantle's challenges. We were ready this time, prepared for the task ahead.
We went through the same drill; handed over our possessions and thrown onto the 'Australis', a ship sailing from Southampton to Freemantle a hundred years prior. Someone had stolen a passengers jewels and we had to find out who did it and escape ourselves.
We failed miserably at the first hurdle. We were perplexed with all of the evidence we had gathered and precariously laid out in front of us. Damn it, we had to ask for a hint to connect the first dots. Again, a very obvious resolution staring us in the face. This happened again and again. They were not kidding when they said this was the hardest challenge. Four supposedly intelligent adults stood their cluelessly racking our brains for the answers. The escape from the ship was entirely different to that of the Prison so we were not as equipped as we thought. With a few hints along the way and 1 minute left on the clock we managed to escape.
And lastly, we had to finish the trio and we all went back to escape from the tavern. This time, a darker tale ... murder! A local had been struck down, there were many suspects and we had to find the killer.
Ok, we were experienced investigators now and we all put bets on how quickly we could escape, we were that confident. Although we had taken on two escapes already, each crime scene is different and to be handled in a different way. We struggled again, mainly due to a vital piece of evidence we missed when we first swept the room. With only one helpful hint required and 5 minutes extra time we cracked it. This one we were most proud of as we completed the mission (almost) completely on our own. Carina won the bet with the longest time on the clock and won a frozen yogurt.
Looks so fascinating Jodie, what a great concept. I see there’s one in Bali…. 🙂 x
Yes we have to do it! Apparently the Asian ones are better because they actually lock you in the room. Because of health and safety they cannot physically lock the door here. Ill look into it x