There was excitement as a dozen cryptozoologists crowded at the window. Someone insisted they’d seen “an out-of-place animal… an ostrich or something” walking past. Some were sceptical; there were cryptozoology in-jokes about “the unreliability of the witness” and ironic cries of “Canular!” (“hoax” in French). Our out-of-place animal turned to be a rhea pottering around its small “hobby farm” in the hotel’s extensive grounds. We were in Day Two of ‘Rencontres Europeennes de Cryptozoologie’ (European Cryptozoology Meeting) organised by Abepar in Dinant, Belgium, where the Ardennes mountains begin.
I had attended the event 11 years ago () and) in very poor French. They asked me back this year, but for a talk in English.
