On 6th May 2022, four intrepid Explorer Scouts and two leaders took on the challenge of an Escape Room.
Fiona, Lucy, Jack and Jake, plus leaders Amy and Lucy, met up outside The Room Challenge in Fort William and, after signing in, an amicable staff member explained to us the Room's premise: a virus had broken out and badly infected a scientist, but not before the scientist had created an antidote. The antidote was inside a safe, and so our task was to crack a code to access it.
The staff member additionally told us that they had actually devised this particular puzzle way back before Covid happened, so the seemingly contemporary theme was, in fact, a coincidence.
Then we were let loose! When we entered the room, we were faced with various random objects, posters on the walls and padlocked cabinets requiring combination codes. Our Explorers had one hour to figure out how these objects and clues were linked in order to crack the final padlock containing the antidote.
Amy and I were extremely impressed with how well everyone worked together. Everyone shared ideas, voiced their observations and, crucially, listened well to each other. Amy and I both commented on how hard we would have found it if either of us had been trying to solve it alone; it truly required a team of people who notice different things and see a problem in different ways in order to succeed.
A particularly memorable moment was when each Explorer Scout was stationed on a different combination padlock and someone shouted "Everyone try this code and we'll see which lock it opens!" True teamwork.
Our Explorers succeeded in opening the final safe containing the antidote with an incredible 4 minutes 42 seconds to spare. A big well done to the team for saving the day!