Nature Trail 1970

User summary -

Nature trail is a turn based game. Each player rolls 1 die and moves around the board landing on (spotting) various animals that you might find in the English countryside. Once spotted the player gets a card depicting the animal, which they collect and at the end add up to give a final score. There is a 100 point bonus for the 1st person to finish. There are also red arrows that if landed on give either a penalty ranging from -5 to -15 or a bonus of +5 to +15. The player picks one of these card from the stack and they may contain bonus plants & animals or a penalty for littering, leaving gates open or other contraventions of the 'countryside code'.

This game came with no printed box - just a plain white card sleeve. Inside is a plastic tray, 1 board, set of rules, x1 6 sided die, 4 player counters (coloured tidily winks), x30 penalty and bonus cards for landing on red arrows, 24 animal cards, 1 100 point wining bonus card, and black card tiles to cover animals that have been spotted by players on the board.

History - I believe it was bought from the RSPB shop (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) UK, which is based a few miles from where I lived when I was younger. It seem it may have been a short test run of games - or only sold direct by the RSPB -

The game has stayed at my parents and is played a lot by grandchildren and adults when we get together. The game works well, with a slight imbalance in the second half of the board, or if you use the bonus points card - that lead people to race round the board.