A SUMMER Bear Hunt trail in Newton Abbot has landed two lucky youngsters with goodie bags full of toys from the much-loved Austins Department Store.

The free six-week challenge was sponsored by the company and organised by Town Development Manager Sally Henley with support from staff at the museum and library.

It encouraged children to track down a dozen letters of the alphabet secreted, along with cuddly teddy bears, at businesses across town.

Once all 12 had been located, the letters needed to be rearranged to spell the surname of famous naturalist, David Attenborough.

Correct entries were entered into a first-out-of-the-hat draw and the winners invited to collect their prizes from Austins on September 1.

The honours went to Aliza Williams of Kingsteignton and Lexi Noakes from Abbotskerswell, both aged five.

Aliza’s dad, Ben, said: ‘They had a lot of fun doing it over a few days, going all over the town getting very excited, and very excited to win too.’

David Noakes, Lexi’s dad, said: ‘It was something different to do while in town and we weren’t allowed to leave until she had got every one of them so we only had one day!’

Delighted with the public’s response to the trail with more than 100 completed entries, Sally Henley said: ‘After the success of our Easter Lego Trail I was asked to put together something similar for the school summer holidays.

‘At a time when money is tight for many households this was a bit of fun with no cost involved for hard pressed families.

‘My thanks go to all the businesses which agreed to host a bear this summer and Austins came up trumps, as they always do, and provided our bear participants as well as the prizes, I’m so thankful.

‘I am also grateful to the team at the museum for putting together the entry form and preparing the bears, and to the museum and library for collecting completed entries.

‘I do hope that participants had as much fun completing the trail as I had putting it together,’ added Sally Henley.