Bossie Goud Skattejag
In 2004, we did something a little mad.
We put together a treasure hunt called the Bossie Goud Skattejag that stretched across fifteen towns: Springbok, Pofadder, Priska, Vosburg, Williston, Calvina, Beaufort West, Merweville, Rietbron, Calitzdorp, De Rust, Van Wyksdorp, Willowmore, Steyterville and Hofmeyr. The idea was simple in spirit: bring the towns together, get the local entrepreneurs involved, market our area as one, and maybe raise a few funds along the way.
For nearly a year and a half, the project ran.
And it was a good run. The towns showed up. The entrepreneurs stepped in. At the end, we put together prize baskets. These were gift baskets filled with products supplied by our own family members from around the area, and the winners were genuinely thrilled. You could see it in their faces. That was the whole point.
But a project that runs for nearly a year and a half teaches you a few things.
The first lesson: we made it too complicated. A treasure hunt should be a treasure hunt, something you can jump into without a manual. Ours had too many moving parts, too many rules, too many layers. People were excited about the idea, but the actual playing was harder than it should have been.
The second lesson: a year and a half is too long. Enthusiasm has a shelf life. A project that drags on past its natural energy becomes a chore, and nobody, not the organisers and not the participants, wants to be part of a chore.
The third lesson, and the one that changed how we work: we can't do it all from our side. Ons Karoo en Kontrei can spark an idea, but we can't drive it alone. We need the people in the towns to be in the room, to help shape things, to own pieces of the project. When the family members step in directly, not just as suppliers but as collaborators, the impact is completely different. We are stronger together. That's not a slogan. That's what we learned the hard way.
There was also a practical problem. The additions to the online system we built for the hunt were expensive to maintain, and when it started failing, we didn't have the funds to keep paying coders to fix it. That lesson led directly to where we are now: the website you're reading is the result of us deciding to build and manage our own system, so we're not locked into costs we can't sustain.
So will there be another treasure hunt? Maybe. We're not ruling it out.
In the meantime, keep an eye on our social media. If we do run the next one, it'll be shorter, simpler, and hopefully a lot more fun to actually play.
And if you want to be part of what comes next, join our community.
