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A Bushpig has a day out in alpine country.
Had a spot I needed to check over for a Red stag group that has been lurking there the last couple of years, but kept getting sidetracked by other spots. Decided I had to get up there before it was too late and they buggered off to find the girls.
Arrived at the track end about 5am and got moving, a few minutes later am at the top of a rise that lets me see back to the road, bloody lights on it!, just keep on goin I say to myself, but no, stops not far from my truck. Might be going fishing hopes me and on I push, a bit further up the hill and I see a light bobbing along behind me, I keep an eye on it and it's gaining on me fast, like really gaining at a silly rate, buggers flat out trying to catch me! Over a rise on the plain and down the dip, kill my headlight and go hard left and head for a big rock I know is there and park beside it just in time. I can see his headlight is pointed right at his feet so they showed up his legs as he sped on past up the track, I could tell he had a backpack but in the pitch black no detail to give any clues, he was bloody jogging along, literally running in the dark!. Saving my legs for the other end of the day, some stiff elevation gains and losses coming coming, so back to plodding no light for me, watching this light zoom off into the distance until it was eventually gone.
By daybreak I was cross gaining the first of the valleys to get to my intended spot, then I heard it.......... dump dump dump dump somewhere in front, didn't see it for a while then it came spudding out of one of the valleys, pulls a rolling u turn and goes back up it, right over the top of the spot my day was planned around........ fuck, what do I do now?, bugger it, might as well go look anyway and read the ground sign and action plan b. As I plodded up and down I had to listen and occasionally see him in and out, up and down, couldn't hear shots, but at distance around the corner and with a suppressor, likely I wouldn't anyway, no strop so WTF is going on?
Never did find out, not a single animal any where now!, so on I trudge heading for another spot I have glassing as I go, nothing as expected really, just before lunchtime am parked behind a big rock that makes a good bivy spot, close to Tahr but across the creek with good cover and room to move. Brew, food, glassing without result and then a solid sleep. Wake up an hr later, brew, food and glassing, thinking fuck, maybe they've been shot out, need to go have a look and across the river I go and up into the bluff systems a couple of hrs earlier than would be normal, doubt ruining my patience. Knowing the Tahr routes in this bit of ground I was able get there without being busted, crawled along a long ledge I've used before that you can't walk on, but it gets you to a spot you can catch them coming out of the upper bluffs late arvo, a couple of small tussock basins they feed through on their way down only 300yds away.
Then I heard it! busted! some bloody nanny has spotted me and is telling everyone!. Then I spotted them, just above where I would have expected them, but they were ignoring me and the warning whistles, found the noisy one, in a different system with a different mob, lucky for me, my mob couldn't care less. A while later a young bull got a 150gn Speer Hotcor in the front of the chest from my Howa Alpine 15" 308 at 300yds and he tumbled down the scree across from me. Took a nice load of meat off him, plenty of Red and Fallow in the freezer, but no Tahr left, solved that now!.
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On the walk out, not long before dark, crossing one of the valleys I bumbled across a Wallaby that wasn't bothered about being close, stopped and had a chat with him about meeting strange people, talked to him like he was Skippy, (clicking the tongue) and bugger me, he was making odd little mouth movements back at me each time I stopped, got to about 4 metres and he just stayed, in the end I told him I had to be off cause I still had a long way to go. Reckon he might have made a good pet if I could get the dogs to agree....
Got home again just before midnight, wife stayed up to make me a brew and feed me, ya can't buy one of them at the shop!
Wonder if that blokes still trying to catch up?
