A few months ago in Japan, I was settling down with some coffee in the morning at our Airbnb when I looked at the window at the Kamogawa and saw a river otter zooming downstream. It was belly up, and it seemed to be having a great time. A few seconds later, it was out of site.
This past weekend I visited the Gamers Ranch for the third year, and every day in the mid-morning, we saw a river otter playing and swimming across the pond right next to the ranch. It would jump in and out of the water, then dive for a bit, then go back to jumping. It never got close enough for a photo, but we confirmed it was an otter with some binoculars.
I’ve gone my entire life without encountering a single otter in the wild, and now I’ve seen 2 in the span of a few months. According to Google, otters symbolize joy, resilience, adaptability, curiosity, and community. I love that!
Also, aside from otters (and an armadillo and a bald eagle), here are the 22 different games I played at the Gamers Ranch this year.
- disc golf (x2)
- The Gang
- Ethnos 2nd Edition
- Survivor: The Tribe Has Spoken
- Fellowship of the Ring: Tricktaking Game (x2)
- Bites
- Lords of Waterdeep
- Orleans
- Mistborn
- two prototypes
- Planet Unknown
- Pompiers
- Magic: Commander
- Altay: Dawn of Civilization
- Power Grid
- Terraforming Mars
- Forest Shuffle
- The Bloody Inn
- MLEM
- So Clover
- You Must Be an Idiot
What’s a wild animal you didn’t expect to see recently?
An animal we saw last year on a trip to Tasmania, which is very rare/hard to find/see in the wild, was a platypus – and not just one, we saw 2 in the same river, which was really cool to see.
About 20 years ago while holidaying in Port Douglas in Far North Queensland, we took a drive up to the Daintree Forest and amazingly saw a Cassowary in the wild, which are very rare/an endangered species – it felt like seeing something out of Jurassic Park.
A platypus in the wild? That’s amazing! The Cassowary too.
A Dalmatian. I haven’t seen one in real life in 25 years.
And you recently saw one? I don’t think I’ve seen one in a long time either.