Twenty-five challenges solved with the body

The alternative text has to describe the framing, not the place: the steeple to the left of the oak, the railing in front. That is exactly what a sighted player extracts, so the challenge stays playable without sight and still gives nothing away.

1. Ages 6 to 9

   Stand exactly where this photograph was taken. What you are looking for is at your feet.

   Setting it upPhotograph from the hiding place, framing two landmarks that sit far apart: a roof in the distance, a trunk in the foreground. The wider the gap between them, the narrower the viewpoint.

2. Ages 10 to 14

   This photograph was taken in winter. Find the place again, in spite of the leaves.

   Setting it upTake the picture out of season, or under cloud. The challenge is the gap between the photograph and what the team has in front of it, not the place itself.

3. Adults

   The photograph shows twenty square centimetres of the place. Find them.

   Setting it upPhotograph a detail from very close: a weld, a worn inscription, a cast-iron pattern. Print it rather than showing it on a phone, where people zoom instead of searching.

1. Ages 6 to 9

   Stand so that the big tree hides the steeple completely. That is the spot.

   Setting it upFrom the hiding place, look for what lines up with what. There is almost always an alignment somewhere; you only have to name it.

2. Ages 10 to 14

   Step back until the ridge of the roof sits exactly on the bar of the gate.

   Setting it upPick two landmarks at very different distances. The line where they coincide gets narrower the greater the gap.

3. Adults

   Two things must be true at once: the pylon in line with the path, and the fountain exactly to your left. Only one spot satisfies both.

   Setting it upCross two alignments. Their intersection is a single point, and that is the hiding place. Use this variant when the ground is wide and the radar too generous.

4. Adults

   From here the row of trees looks like one. Take three steps sideways and there are seven. Search along those three steps.

   Setting it upWorks anywhere a perspective closes up: an avenue, a line of posts, a colonnade. Find the vanishing point from the hiding place, never from the path.

5. Expert

   Stand where the wall, seen from a distance, seems to stop. It does not stop.

   Setting it upLook for a step in the wall that is invisible head-on and obvious from three-quarters. The hiding place goes in the return, the part you only see once you are there.

Never let one channel carry the whole message: the written text must hold the equivalent, naming a nearby fountain, a road in the distance, bells on the quarter hour.

1. Ages 6 to 9

   Listen, then walk towards the place where it sounds most alike.

   Setting it upRecord twenty seconds from the hiding place, without speaking. A fountain, a road in the distance, a school yard: three sources are enough to fix a point.

2. Adults

   This recording was made at seven in the morning. What you hear now will not be the same, and that is expected.

   Setting it upRecord at an hour very different from the game’s. The team has to sort what belongs to the place from what belongs to the hour.

3. Adults

   What you hear is a route, not a place. It starts at the railings and ends on the hiding place: follow it at the same pace.

   Setting it upRecord while walking, from the start to the hiding place, and keep your stride even: it is the PACE the team will reproduce. A minute is the maximum; beyond that nobody holds the comparison.

1. Ages 6 to 9

   Run your hand underneath. It cannot be seen, only felt.

   Setting it upChoose an underside that is reachable and safe: a ledge, a plank, a flat stone. Run your own hand along it before putting anything there.

2. Ages 10 to 14

   Three stones are set fast. The fourth moves.

   Setting it upFind a stone that is ALREADY loose, never loosen one yourself, and check that nothing collapses when it is pulled.

3. Adults

   Find the part of the wall that is still warm at sunset.

   Setting it upA solid south-facing wall holds heat for an hour after it falls into shade. Check it with your palm, at the hour of the game: under cloud the contrast vanishes.

4. Adults

   Slap the wall with your palm as you go. At one spot it rings hollow.

   Setting it upLook for a blocked-up opening, a boxed-in duct, a walled cupboard. Sound the whole wall on your reconnaissance: the hollow cannot be guessed, only found.

5. Expert

   The wood is smooth everywhere but ten centimetres, where somebody carved something long ago. Your fingers will read it better than your eyes.

   Setting it upA carving worn down by time or painted over. Check that it reads by touch: if it can still be seen, the challenge is solved by eye and loses its point.

1. Ages 6 to 9

   Twenty paces from the gate, following the wall. Then look at your feet.

   Setting it upPace it out yourself, with a child’s stride. Twenty adult paces become thirty for a seven-year-old, and that gap is enough to miss the hiding place.

2. Ages 10 to 14

   Count your paces from the gate to the first tree. Do the same number again from the tree, towards the fountain.

   Setting it upPick three landmarks that are not in line. A miscount is partly made up on the second leg, which makes the challenge forgiving of short legs.

3. Expert

   Walk round the building, counting. The shortest side is not the one you would think, and it is along that one.

   Setting it upWorks on a building that is almost square, or has one side masked by a lean-to. Pace all four sides yourself: if the difference is under three paces, nobody will feel it.

1. Ages 6 to 9

   A marker stone carries a single digit. Walk past that many trees.

   Setting it upA milestone, a numbered post, a street plate: any support carrying a small figure. Check there are enough trees beyond it for the count to land where you want.

2. Adults

   On the plate, the gap between the two dates gives you the number of paces to take along the wall.

   Setting it upPick two dates whose gap falls between ten and forty. Beyond that the team miscounts; below it, they arrive before they have searched.

3. Expert

   Three plates carry dates. Only one has been remade, and that is the one that counts.

   Setting it upFind the plate whose lettering, typeface or stone differs from the others. It is an observation challenge dressed up as arithmetic, and nobody notices before counting three times.

1. Ages 6 to 9

   It takes three of you, arms outstretched, to go round it. If you cannot, it is not the right one.

   Setting it upMeasure the trunk with a line: three children with arms out span about three and a half metres, three adults about four and a half. Check that no neighbouring tree is the same size.

2. Ages 10 to 14

   Lie down end to end, all of you, starting at the gate. Where the last one stops, search.

   Setting it upThe distance depends on how many are playing: announce it per team, or write it in people rather than metres. Make sure the ground is dry.

3. Adults

   It takes two to read the inscription: one lamp from the side, one reader in front. Lit head-on, it disappears.

   Setting it upA shallow carving only reads in raking light. Try it at night or in shade, with a phone, before relying on it.