Thread: The end of the school holidays

We finished the school holidays in style, with the youngest super keen to get out and look for goats.

We headed up towards Duppa to have a look at a spot where the road get very close to the DOC boundary and native, but the area was replanted a few years ago, and between the trees was solid head high gorse, so we gave that a miss and instead did a couple of hours sneaking around in the rain on the edge of the native up by the Duppa carpark.

Saw loads of sign, both in the native and the logged forestry, but didn't see any animals. The mist came and went, along with the visibility. It's quite open bush with a fern understory so not too hard to move through.



As we headed back to the car we came across a section of mature pine with what I assume is a pig proof fence round it. Must be some study being run there or something.



Just to keep up traditions, we saw 2 goats and 2 kids hanging out beside the forestry road as we drove out. There are obviously lots of goats in there, you just have to catch them in the native.

After some grown-up time watching the Minuit gig (still crushing it 25+ years after I first saw them live) on Saturday night, Sunday morning saw us off to another spot where I have often seen goats, Opouri Saddle on the way over to Duncan Bay/Penzance.



We parked at the saddle and snuck off up the ridge to the west along a small marked track. We found the remnants of another study up there too, big black plastic funnels in the bush. My guess is sampling beech seed volumes??



At one point we were moving quietly along a bit of a saddle on the ridge, and heard something running away from us about 20m ahead. Don't know if it heard, saw or smelt us. There was a fair northerly blowing over the ridge, and and the runner (I'm guessing a deer) was on the downwind side of the track.



After an hour and a bit we turned around and headed down the Opouri bridle track. Lots of good open bush either side of the track, but again no animals seen. We got back to the car just as it started pissing down, so pretty good timing. A pie for lunch at the Brick Oven in Rai and headed home.

Now we just need some good weather on the weekends and we'll be back out checking some more spots. We're both loving it so far.

A mate was out cutting a track from Flannagans Hut (Baton Valley) onto a ridge that same weekend, and said the area up round the hut is crawling with goats (he caught two by hand!) but apparently the track up the Baton to the hut is in very bad condition with lots of slips and trees down, so it's a 6-8 hour mission each way at the moment.

We might try going a little ways up the Baton and the Ellis next.