So I went with them on
to the hunt. In the beginning it was three main farmers and some
people they had brought along. In total we where seven people and six
dogs. The dogs where there to hunt them out and the humans to shot
them. The first patch we went through there turned out to be no foxes
or they had all run of. The second patch we went through two foxes
got away, after being shot at and missed a lot of the times. They
have to use shotguns, as it is not a single hunt and the shotguns
don't have that much of a distance to cause harm to the others with
you. So after those two got away, we went to the next patch. Just
under a farm who also had Angus (a type of cattle breed for meat) and
went down along a creek to get the foxes. One was pressed in towards
two hunters at the bottom by the dogs. The other one tried to double
back and was hit by James. It nearly got away, too. It was behind
James when it took a run for it. The first was shot by Bucky, a
friend of James. We searched through some burrows along the side of
the creek, but the dogs found them to be empty. On the way down one
of us had spotted something unusual. An Angus calf had been wedged in
between two rocks down in the creek, with no forward way out. It was
lucky we found it then on the hunt, or it would have been
smelled/found dead in the next few days. After getting a tow rope
from the farmer who owned the paddock, we pushed/pulled it out
backwards and back towards it's family.
We had some lunch after
that. Grilled some meat from one of James lamb and had a chat with
some of James's friend. Sometimes it was a bit problematic
understanding them, as I don't really speak the slang of the area. We
had a talk anyway and after a good lunch (plus some scones that
Catherine made and bought along) we where back out with one more
person. Drove to a patch where I was in a line driving the foxes out
of a small forest and heard shotguns go of everywhere. Must have been
a really good fox, considering how many pellets he evaded. Most of
all hares where running around and I spotted a wallaby, which was not
shot at. Wallaby's create quite a problem around here, too. They feed
on the grass that the cattle and sheep need, basically taking away
two sheep worth of field. When we came back from fishing the other
day we saw about 50 kangaroos (similar to the wallaby) in one of the
farmers fields. They are not allowed to be shot, thought, so it was
left alone. The next paddock also proved worth the while, as it was
surrounded by expecting sheep. One fox lived in there and could have
caused massive damage. Also there where a load of bones lying around,
because of animals the farmer had towed in or the fox is unknown.
That was the first dead fox I picked up and dragged to the cars. The
next patch was a gold mine in fox hunting. Around five where shot,
and a few ducks where also targeted. The last creek was found to be
the home of another fox. All in all the whole day a total amount of
ten lamb killers and a few hares where got. The foxes where scalped
for their bounty (the government of Australia has given out a reward
of 10$ per fox, as they are introduced and not native to Australia)
and the hares where prepared for dog meat.
In the evening we went
to Luigi (nickname), a friend of James's, and had a wonderful evening
talking and laughing about all sort of things. He and his girlfriend
have a very friendly cat, too.
Interesting first hunt
with first time seen use of real firearms.
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