Next day was a big day, both of us headed our separate ways again, I was to sidle around the front of the range again but further this time as a recon to check we could make it round to the creek we were going to use to decend the mountain when the time came, and also to look for Chamois.
Clinton was to head farther up the range towards a saddle that dropped into another gnarly catchment.
A little ways around the front I came upon a doe Chamois and her kid basking in the sun, I watched them for a while and decided they were pretty un approachable from my position.
I continued high on the range and dropped over into another gutter where I came upon this guy again soaking up the suns rays.
Again from my position he would have spotted me descending.
As Clinton and I were going to make another camp this way in the days to come I opted not to pressure the animals to much unless a really good opportunity presented itself.
So I continued on sideling, I was on a steep patch of tussock with a bench below me that I couldn't see fully. Suddenly there was a swirl of wind and 10 sets of horns appeared on the shelf below and to the right of my position,
They were alert but not sure why, I stood frozen about 40m away to far for me to do anything but wait.
It took 15-20 minutes for the group to feed off the bench descending as they went but my attention was on a young buck that had walked off to the left still on the bench out of view, I thought to my self this is it I will just stalk down slowly peer over the bench and maybe have the chance at a shot. now all the others were out of sight I knocked an arrow and slowly started heading down.
After only a couple of well placed steps the young buck appeared still out of range and continued feeding across to where the rest had disappeared.
Change of plan, when he was out of sight I made my way down to the bench dropped my pack
(hence, why no photos)and crawled over to the edge of the bench peering over I was greeted with the sight of 14 Chamois all bedded in the sun in various locations within a small area un aware to my presence. Although only 60m away with all them eyes, noses and ears I had no chance of getting closer so I just sat and watched these beautiful creatures for the remainder of the day.
It was interesting watching a rutting buck run around pestering all the does, its unbelievable how they cover the terrain with such ease.
Later on in the day I decided that was that and backed out giving myself enough time to get back to camp.
The next event proved to be quite bizarre.....
Earlier on in the day Clinton had let me know that he spotted 2 bulls above camp.
As I was on my way back I spotted this guy across the bowl above camp where Clinton had said,
I watched for a while and took some photos over the next 30 minutes or so, trying to decide if in the time I had left, I could head round to my right and drop over on top of him ? it would be quite a dangerous climb across the top of the range and time was getting on.
Topic: tahr and chamois quest 2013 (Read 9743 times)
