Saturday I was up early (3am ) and went to an area totally foreign to me. The walk in began in the dark with foggy conditions (10m vis max) which made things interesting. Thank god for the GPS. Bumped into some other hunters later in the day and had a good chat and even shared some good oil on the area (hunters I have met so far are good like that). Set up bed in the hut and ventured off for some exploration. Within 15 minutes I had spooked a deer, but not made eye contact. Sloppy work on my behalf. The bush in the Kaimais is certainly challenging and yep that supple jack in some instances had me going around in circles for a bit before admitting defeat and going back the way I had come. The day was getting on and light was fading fast. My attempts to secure venison that day was not to be. I did find a nice old wallow though. Back at the hut, another hunter had turned up who was new to the whole thing so gave him some little advice on what he should do in the morning. He was super keen to go one way for the last 30 minutes of light, even though I said he would come to a wall of supple jack. Off he went, and 10 minutes had passed and he was back. "Shit mate you weren't joking about that supple jack!" Have to say I was disgusted in the amount of rubbish around the hut (gas cylinders, toilet paper, cans etc).
The next day dawned foggy and a bit wet and the guy in the hut was keen and off. My plan was to slowly make my way back to the car going off the beaten track where ever looked good. This proved to be a good way of getting to know the lay of the land, and I saw plenty of deer sign. One area I could sense was super deer country and sure enough I saw 2 deer arses trotting off. No chance of a shot. The idea of chasing after them crossed my mind and in hindsight I should have as I had nothing to lose, but just seeing them made me feel like I was doing something right and would take it as a learning experience. Marked some likely looking spots on the GPS and made my way back to the car in the afternoon. Awesome place, and a challenging area to hunt (a GPS a must!)
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