Anyways, enough horror, lets get on with the hunt...
...The first full day was fairly uneventful, efforts notwithstanding. We put in the K's but didn't see a lot and were back at camp earlier than anticipated and had a day to fill until the arvo hunt. Rod went off for another walk and I made a cuppa and kicked back for a while. Enjoying the quiet of the hills mid- morning was a delight to savour, here on the island there's always ferries, barges, chainsaws, power tools, cars etc to drown out the birdsong and breeze but at the woolshed there was none of it. After a while I heard the unmistakable tinkle of a small stream of liquid creating a puddle and thought Rod must be back and marking his territory... but it was the property owner getting water from the shed tank, so I went out and offered him a coffee, which he happily accepted just as Rod came back up the track so it was cuppas & a yarn for three. During the trip out Rod had told me he had brought one of his earlier Gringa creations as a gift for the owner, and he had decided now was the time to present it. Old mate seemed very pleased with Rods offering and wanted to have a crack at it straight away so we headed outside for a few start out pointers...
- The owners new bow.jpg (198 KiB) Viewed 7138 times
and before long he was away!
- Having a go.jpg (198.18 KiB) Viewed 7138 times
We'll make him up some more target arras next time we go out (left him about 5, I think) and when he feels ready, some broadhead arras to try a hunt with us, but he's a pretty busy bloke so that may be some time away yet. Not much to report on the arvo hunt, didn't see a thing after splitting up for a while, nor together. Very quiet indeed. After we got back to camp we had a look at another part of the property where pig traps had been set out but had nothing in them. They had been at the grain in the trap, but not sprung it. The devilishly clever little blighters! Well, they must dine there during the night because niether of us saw anything on our respective walks, and I had sat off the pad leading to the trap for about 40 mins before we decided it was time we had a quiet beer and reflected on our lack of success so far. The owner joined us for one and after a few yarns and a good laugh we headed off to bed determined to improve our score the next day.
Well, despite of previous nights enthusiasm, and an early night we still both seemed to like our swags too much to leave 'em at the crack 'o dawn as planned, so we got out kinda late. "Gonna have to push it a bit now" we thought and so after another creek crossing ( after doing this a couple of times a day it was beginning to lose it's novelty, let me assure you) we set out for the top of the highest hill we could see, to maybe find where game may be camped up for the day. An hour or so of slog later, we still hadn't seen any game, but were rewarded with this view of camp...
- Top of the hill.jpg (199.19 KiB) Viewed 7123 times
and the surrounding land...
- Next door.jpg (199.71 KiB) Viewed 7123 times
and even some kind of wildlife!...
- A yeti in the scrub.jpg (199.82 KiB) Viewed 7123 times
...
- wildlife.jpg (195.89 KiB) Viewed 7123 times
. We made it back to camp feeling a bit dejected with it all so decided we'd drive into Inverell for some real coffee and
smokes (They were for Rod, Sir! Honest!
) and what a nice town it is, too. Got some good coffee from a very attractive young lady (who managed to get the fact that she was married with a child to a big, tough fella into the first 30 secs of the conversation!
), had a small roam around town, checked out a hunting & fishing store, then headed back out to the property to have a kip and prepare for the big push in the arvo...
...which turned out to be as sparse an excercise as all the others! We went as far as we could in one direction, reached the boundry and turned, walked for as long as we could in that direction, yet didn't see a thing, not even any recent sign! Very dissapointing indeed! As we headed back along a farm road to camp, knowing the hunt was over, Rod suddenly hissed "STOP! Pig up ahead!", and he was right, one had just come out of the scrub at the bottom of the hills (By this stage I had given up and was just strolling, not really taking notice of my suroundings...lesson learned about vigilence!) and after offering it to me, I declined and he went after it. It had clocked us as it crossed the track and trotted to some trees which is when I lost sight of him, but Rod had him in sight as he took off across some open grass land (lots of rain, very long grass) to the creek, and then he was gone. That was it, the last chance we would get this trip. The mood walking back to camp was a bit grim, but it was still good to be out in the bush, roaming with my
TRAD bow ( sorry mate, just had to get one more in before the end of the yarn
)
- Inverell.jpg (196.17 KiB) Viewed 7121 times
and once back theres nothing more to tell. We went to bed early, got up early and while Rod went for one more look I broke camp and packed. In an act of supreme optimism for a man of his vintage Rod collected some Osage fruit hoping to propogate some for future use
- Osage Fruit.jpg (187.14 KiB) Viewed 7121 times
and that's it. That fallow got to us though, and we're heading back out in the first week of April to see how we go. From what we can work out that's when the rut is most likely to be in swing, but I'm sure those wily deer will have plenty to teach us before we ever get near 'em!
What did that Darren Hinch used to say - Shame shame shame!!! 
... 
