I took on the brilliant Pride of Portsmouth trail to find all 45 of the city's hidden lions - and may have bitten off more than I could chew

Find all 45 of the lions hidden across the city in one day? Easy - or so I thought, in a challenge which left me wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew.

This week the fabulous Pride of Portsmouth trail got underway which has seen 45 brilliantly-painted lions ‘hidden’ in a free activity to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Portsmouth becoming a city.

I say ‘hidden’ because the brilliant app which goes with the challenge features an app which has them all on a map which also helps you keep track of what you have found. As you find each lion you input the code into the app which not only lights it up on the map but also leads to some fantastic rewards for you to pick up along the way.

So, armed with my app, a car and lots of enthusiasm I dragged poor photographer Habibur Rahman with me on what was to be a little adventure.

We headed straight to the city centre to find The News’ lion The Town Crier first. It seemed a sensible place to start and it was the one I was most looking forward to finding.

And I could not contain my own enthusiasm as we spotted it as soon as we entered Victoria Park where it was sitting proudly. It is covered in hints of so many news stories from before my time and that I have covered as well really capturing a snippet of history of my home city.

The park is also the location of a second lion, and there are a few others nearby so we thought we would quickly our way through them all. How wrong we were.

Because at each lion you want to take time to really look at them and take them in, admiring the hard work which has gone into them. So we spent more time at each lion than we expected, and they were not always exactly where we thought they were going to be.

Secondly Portsmouth is much bigger than you think when you are working your way around it. ‘The next one is only up the road’ we kept saying, but actually by the time we got to the next location and stopped, photographed and admired, everything was taking much longer than we thought.

But lastly, and maybe most importantly, we met so many other lion hunters that we were chatting to along the way as well. Swapping stories, tips and hints - as well as our opinions of each lion we had found somewhere.

Some were taking on a cycle challenge to find them, some were planning to tackle different areas each day, and others were just going about the city blindly to see what they stumbled across.

And this is when actually when our challenge took on a bit of a different meaning. It was also about meeting people across our city and having a shared interest. Yes finding the lions was fun, but actually that sense of community the trail has created was an even bigger bonus.

So can you find all of the lions in one day? Well, yes with the help of the app and a sense of madness you absolutely can but I’ll tell you it is exhausting.

But should you? I’d say no. And I certainly plan to do it all over again a little more slowly with my family to really enjoy the experience.

I would encourage as many people as possible to take part in the Pride of Portsmouth trial though. It is a great, and free, activity which is perfect for the summer.

Take it one area at a time, admire each lion you find and most importantly enjoy the sense of community the trail has created to bring the people of Portsmouth together.

For more details visit prideofportsmouth.co.uk