Thread: Ol’ Man And A Boy.

After having a few problems with the body breaking down on me, I thought I had it sorted. Back pain gone (to a manageable level), shoulder on the mend, and hip rehabbed. Been on a bike for 6 months getting some sort of fitness back. I reckon I’m the fittest I’ve been for 20yrs. The lad has been out with mates conquering mountains around the area, and having some success filling the freezer. Was honored to be invited on abit of a wander( although the main reason was to drive him).
Arrived at the spot 0430 and set off following markers, had a river crossing 400m in (deep enough to freeze the jewels) and carried on upstream. Spotted a white fallow buck and some spikers, but were on the wrong side of water, and not target species. Saw some promise 1 1/2 hrs in.

5-6 tahr had crossed over not long before us, stones and sand still wet. Feeling lucky we cracked on aiming for a likely looking area. Another couple of nut dunks had us roughly there.

Started climbing, body holding out, keeping up with the young buck........

Until knees started to give out. He carried on up and I started glassing while giving the knees a rest.
Anyway, long story short, nothing in our basin, fallow and reds on other side, but out of reach for today. He skirted along the tops, while the ol’ boy sidled, knees getting worse. I made the call to abandon and started dropping, while he checked out the next gut.
Was a battle for me to get back, considered ditching gear, but managed to get back with a couple off sticks helping.
He never saw anything and caught up just before the ute.
I think I’ve blown the next invite chasing tahr for a while.

Who else has knee troubles, and what’s your secret to keep them going. Nurofen and Voltarin kept them under control the following days, but would prefer not to use them. The legs and stamina were fine until they let go.

Might have to just pack a fishing rod as well for the next time, and hope a silly one wanders past on the easy stuff to keep some sort of credibility