.It was still a bit windy and with everything wet from the rain it was going to be ideal stalking.Driving down a rough rocky track in my Suzuki vitara a half grown black goat bolted across the track in front of us and dissappeared in to the scrub,a promising start.We pulled up and got our gear onand surveyed the lie of the land and decided to drop over the east side of the ridge and cut around around the ridge that ran south a bit and then turned west as I reckoned that the goats would be sheltering on the northwest side of a rocky outcrop that we could see about a kilometer away,as it that cold I could see my breath.We had only gone about two hundred meters and we spotted a single white goat about fifty meters below us,a quick look with our bino's and we could see that it was a nanny and she had just given birth to twin kids so we left her alone and kept going toward the rocky outcrop.As I was sneaking around a large rock about one hundred meters from the outcrop,I spotted about thirty goats bedded and standing just below it.So we went back about one hundred meters and then up a gully to the top of the rock outcrop above them.The following photo's show some of the action,Steve managed to get ahead of the mob as they fed along the ridge and get a shot at a good size billy,but the adrenaline shakes had set in and he clean missed.I was happy to watch the action and take pics,didn't take an arrow out of the quiver all afternoon.And when we got back to the Suzuki just on dark,the little black goat we saw driving in must have heard us and came close for a look I tried baa'ing him closer for a laugh but it just bolted
.We packed up and headed home with the heater on flatout to warm our frozen bodies. Matt
- The white blur in the back ground is the nanny that has just given birth
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- Steve heading up to get above the mob of goats
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- Some of the mob from the rocky outcrop above them
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- One of the billies with a bit of spread
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- Some of the surrounding country side with my bow leaning on the rock
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- Steve trying to find a path down to stalk closer
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- Some more of the mob totally unaware we are above them
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- Steve watching the mob ,they were in an unstalkable position here
so we left them alone and headed back to the car,a couple of them must have seen the camera red light
and are looking our way. - 350.JPG (199.04 KiB) Viewed 1382 times
and had to delete them ended up keeping twenty pics and posted the best of them here.I had my Contour helmet camera in the backpack as well and should have put it on as at one stage there was about six half grown goats cavorting on the rock ledges only twenty feet below me.They were all different colours,but It was good just to watch them so close.There was about thirty goats all up.I will try to write more stories with the pics,there is more to come from the Byrock trip.Had my heart in my mouth while I was chasing the goats on Saturday as I had put the new camera in the leg pocket of my Auscam pants thinking it would better to get out quicker for action shots until I bashed it against a rock :shock:did'nt mark it