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- Jan 29, 2010
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So, the last week just flew by 
they always do when you are doing something you love...!!!
Spend Friday to Friday up in the mountains near where I grew up. Anyone who notices will have figured I spend a couple of weeks a year in this same area so the countryside may be looking familiar....
The drive up was a bit hectic as it was Good Friday (first day of a four day weekend here) and heading north out of Sydney is always bad. Got away early and thankfully the traffic (there was lots) was still flowing well..!!!
The property is well and truly in drought, there had been rain the week before which settled the dust and raised some green pick. More was to come..!!!
Unpacking things were already looking ominous over the range...
... by Friday night it had already rained, drizzle Saturday morning but OK in the afternoon. So I had a bit of a hunt and on riding out knocked over one small sow...
"Someone" I know had requested some hog hide for a sheath inlay... soooo... SHAZAM.....
.... the little B4 about made that hide fall off on its own !!!
Upon packing up from this I was riding the several KMs back down to the hut and could hear a strange "vibration" from the back of the bike.... a bit of crawling around established that (much to my horror !!! ) I had snapped the frame in two places. "Fortunately" it was at the back and not actually in critical areas. It was the racks/load twisting it down. Got back to camp just fine.
Overnight it was pouring rain through till the early am. Once it cleared I was down to stripping the rack off and bracing the back end with "numerous" cable ties to prevent further damage. Then the rain and wind set in till MONDAY !!! Over Saturday night and Sunday there was about 2 inches of rain backed by a howling wind..!!!!
Went for a walk as riding the bike with pack and rifle (and no racks etc) was a complete PITA...!!
My will was good when I put out several hogs in the tussocks not 100m from the hut, yep...I can resist...!!!! Walked up the mountain another half hour gaining some height and then my "you are hunting deer" will power failed as I saw this guy ambling toward me (about 150m out)....
Onward from here I walked another two hrs. Saw lots of deer, a few small bucks (heard lots more) as the rut is about to start. Finally realising was not going to see a large buck that day I took a couple of does for meat and cull (we HAVE to shoot 4-500 deer off here over the next couple of moths, breaks my heart just to shoot them like that but if not they will put a helicopter over and that is MUCH worse, the HRLM soon whipped out the back straps...
On the walk back I put out a few small hogs and remained strong... well.... mostly....
... these two are important again in a little !
Over the week it was a repeat of the same, hunt between wind and rain, help out the others in camp dress and butcher etc.
I didn't take as many pictures as I normally would because when I am mostly walking I am only carrying a small pocket camera that leaves me cold as far as pictures are concerned. All the above were with it (except the clouds rolling in) and all took some processing to look OK at best.
I took my .375H&H with me as well as the usual .308 and hunting with it a few times, never fired a shot from it however, nothing presented at all on those walks..!!!
The last morning out I rode to the high back of the place, lovely spot and saw a few deer, heard more bucks but generally just enjoyed the peace and quiet !!!!!
Riding back I was passing the spot along the creek where I had shot those two hogs above. There was now only a single hog left there (lots of scavengers in this country, fall asleep and you will probably wake up without a leg or cheek etc). I saw two small foxes going to town on that corpse !! Now normally one would shoot the foxes (they are introduced here and cause havoc on native species and livestock) but I thought I would break out the camera (had the good one on the bike)...
I started opposite them and worked my way across the creek and "close". Both are juveniles and DUMB !!! One did take off (about 20m and watched from the tussocks) but the other...well at one point I was thinking "I don't want to get nipped by those teeth as there will still be rotting hog in there" ...!!!
So in the end there were about six dead hogs and a similar number of deer. The weather though tough on hunting made it a great break from the world (being forced to stay at the hut and just watch nature pass it not that bad at all).
Made the drive back to Sydney and have already dropped the bike off for repairs and modifications (extra support bars up from the pillion passenger foot rest brackets) as I am back up to the same area in around six weeks...
they always do when you are doing something you love...!!!Spend Friday to Friday up in the mountains near where I grew up. Anyone who notices will have figured I spend a couple of weeks a year in this same area so the countryside may be looking familiar....
The drive up was a bit hectic as it was Good Friday (first day of a four day weekend here) and heading north out of Sydney is always bad. Got away early and thankfully the traffic (there was lots) was still flowing well..!!!
The property is well and truly in drought, there had been rain the week before which settled the dust and raised some green pick. More was to come..!!!
Unpacking things were already looking ominous over the range...
... by Friday night it had already rained, drizzle Saturday morning but OK in the afternoon. So I had a bit of a hunt and on riding out knocked over one small sow...
"Someone" I know
had requested some hog hide for a sheath inlay... soooo... SHAZAM.....
.... the little B4 about made that hide fall off on its own !!!
Upon packing up from this I was riding the several KMs back down to the hut and could hear a strange "vibration" from the back of the bike.... a bit of crawling around established that (much to my horror !!!
) I had snapped the frame in two places. "Fortunately" it was at the back and not actually in critical areas. It was the racks/load twisting it down. Got back to camp just fine.Overnight it was pouring rain through till the early am. Once it cleared I was down to stripping the rack off and bracing the back end with "numerous" cable ties to prevent further damage. Then the rain and wind set in till MONDAY !!! Over Saturday night and Sunday there was about 2 inches of rain backed by a howling wind..!!!!
Went for a walk as riding the bike with pack and rifle (and no racks etc) was a complete PITA...!!
My will was good when I put out several hogs in the tussocks not 100m from the hut, yep...I can resist...!!!! Walked up the mountain another half hour gaining some height and then my "you are hunting deer" will power failed as I saw this guy ambling toward me (about 150m out)....
Onward from here I walked another two hrs. Saw lots of deer, a few small bucks (heard lots more) as the rut is about to start. Finally realising was not going to see a large buck that day I took a couple of does for meat and cull (we HAVE to shoot 4-500 deer off here over the next couple of moths, breaks my heart just to shoot them like that
but if not they will put a helicopter over and that is MUCH worse, the HRLM soon whipped out the back straps...
On the walk back I put out a few small hogs and remained strong... well.... mostly....
... these two are important again in a little !
Over the week it was a repeat of the same, hunt between wind and rain, help out the others in camp dress and butcher etc.
I didn't take as many pictures as I normally would because when I am mostly walking I am only carrying a small pocket camera that leaves me cold as far as pictures are concerned. All the above were with it (except the clouds rolling in) and all took some processing to look OK at best.
I took my .375H&H with me as well as the usual .308 and hunting with it a few times, never fired a shot from it however, nothing presented at all on those walks..!!!
The last morning out I rode to the high back of the place, lovely spot and saw a few deer, heard more bucks but generally just enjoyed the peace and quiet !!!!!
Riding back I was passing the spot along the creek where I had shot those two hogs above. There was now only a single hog left there (lots of scavengers in this country, fall asleep and you will probably wake up without a leg or cheek etc). I saw two small foxes going to town on that corpse !! Now normally one would shoot the foxes (they are introduced here and cause havoc on native species and livestock) but I thought I would break out the camera (had the good one on the bike)...
I started opposite them and worked my way across the creek and "close". Both are juveniles and DUMB !!! One did take off (about 20m and watched from the tussocks) but the other...well at one point I was thinking "I don't want to get nipped by those teeth as there will still be rotting hog in there" ...!!!
So in the end there were about six dead hogs and a similar number of deer. The weather though tough on hunting made it a great break from the world (being forced to stay at the hut and just watch nature pass it not that bad at all).
Made the drive back to Sydney
and have already dropped the bike off for repairs and modifications (extra support bars up from the pillion passenger foot rest brackets) as I am back up to the same area in around six weeks... 
..... 
