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Pushing back a little further
So this trip didn't happen too long after my last outing. I decided to camp the night on the tops in the Lewis Pass again. Instead of thinking 'easy access' I tried to get off the beaten path a bit more. All up I walked for a good 7 hours ( it was fairly steep in some places so a few hundred metres took quite a while! ) I arrived in fairly good time so found a good camping spot, ditched the gear and went for a water run. I ate early and then headed for what looked like a good spot to sit and wait. I couldn't believe my eyes when I snuck up and over a ridge to find a stag out feeding quite early. I ranged it at 150m which I was comfortable taking a shot at but while getting myself prepared managed to talk myself out of shooting it! It looked quite young and was still in velvet. I counted at least 4 points, maybe 6. While it would have been nice to pull the trigger and finally get my first public land animal I wasn't desperate for meat and who knows I could be the lucky one that bags it when it's bigger. The photo is pretty rubbish sorry, the iphone 8 doesn't take the best photos. It gradually fed over the ridge and out of sight.
The next morning I was up at about 5:30am and started by scanning the nearby faces near the tent. With nothing seen I slowly made my way to where I'd seen the stag the night before, if there's one there had to be more. Sure enough as I got close my eyes darted to a movement, a hind was looking straight at me. It stood there for so long and even when I spooked it, it didn't go far. I assumed it had a fawn nearby so let it be. The positives for this trip were the fact that I located some animals but even better had the opportunity to have a go at both if I chose to. This was a place I would most definitely be back to and soon!
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