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Did you get anything dad?
I've been lucky enough to have worked right through the lockdown but not getting into the outdoors for a hunt was getting a bit tedious.
Wife had birthday on Thursday so I took Thursday and Friday off work for a long weekend. Friday started off drizzly and the forecast was for about the same all day. After a good breakfast and the kids having school work to do I decided to head for the hills.
Left the truck at 10am and wandered up a stream onto a prominent ridge. Once in the bush I made my way slowly upwards in full ninja mode, man it felt good to smell the bush and hear the birds in the trees. The ridge had a fairly open trail up it which made travel nice and quiet. Nothing seen on the ascent I reached a spot where I thought sidling around the ridge would drop me into the open creek below. The further I got down the worse the bush got until I was battling though a full on jungle in places. After a stop for a late lunch I turned back to my left and found a more open spur leading down towards my intended location.
Finally dropping into the creek I was soon plagued with the odd slippery rock and a couple of small waterfalls. Being extra careful I climbed up the waterfalls and around the corner appeared another waterfall that was too dangerous to risk climbing so it was up the true right and around the waterfall to where I stumbled upon this. Attachment 139948
Getting downwind I let out a low roar to see if the owner wanted a fight. 5 minutes and nothing, another roar for good luck and another 10 minutes of waiting and still not a soul. I continued up the spur a little then finally dropped into the creek where I originally wanted to check out. Slowly upstream for the next half hour and still nothing seen the time had rolled on to 4pm. Time to get out of this place and back up onto the main ridge before it got dark. Found a good game trail which lead up onto a very nice open spur which made the climb up a lot nicer and faster than I was expecting.
Down the main ridge nice and slowly now as feeding time was approaching, half a hour down and with a wicked headache forming I stopped, sat down had a big drink and a muesli bar. Just finished last bite when I hear a stick break to my right. Grabbing the rifle quietly I see a flicker of movement though the trees about 30m below me. Waiting I see it moving to my left and can see it heading towards a bit of a clear patch about 40m away. Then it appears, a red hind, bolt down, rifle shouldered, just need her to stop,and she does, right behind a big tree with only her hindquarters visible. I think I can see her neck on the other side of the tree but with the low light it's hard to tell. No shot and she feeds off the side of the ridge. Slowly I sneak down and look over the side and nothing, she has ghosted away without a sound. Feeling disheartened I start slowly toward home when only 50m further down two deer break for cover in the now unshootable light.
Oh well at least I know where they are feeding now and it's not a hard spot to get back to.
So I get home and my son comes straight out to the garage and asks "did you get anything dad?" disappointingly I say no but one thing I did get was a wet arse and also got to scope out a nice new area. On the inside I got back a great sense of freedom that we get from being in the outdoors. I'll be back there soon.
