LANDSBOROUGH IN THE SUMMER

We hit the ground running nearly literally and had our packs on as soon as we landed at Kea flat, heading upriver for Dechen flat

Not long after, a tahr appeared across the river. Keeping to the shadows and scrub, he was much darker than the bulls we’d spotted in the tussock on the walk up. I’m not sure if this was from age or because he was living down low. We’d just started eyeing him up when Lucas saw another bull step out into the clear. We could see this one was much bigger-bodied – around the 13-inch mark but he had smaller bases and less of a mane than the first one. We decided to get closer so we wove through the waist-high tussock to get to 200m. Despite being closer, the lack of light made it impossible for us to count rings but he didn’t look mature to me.

Before the trip we’d decided that I’d have first choice on tahr and Lucas had first refusal on chamois, but this bull wasn’t for me so I offered him to Lucas. As I did so, the bull stepped into the scrub so we decided that was a sign to leave him be, even though we could have shot him again after that point. Reviewing the photos later, we kicked ourselves as the older, smaller-bodied bull was far more interesting, but in the deep twilight I didn’t assess him correctly because he was so much smaller than the younger bull.

We picked up the gear and shot up to the lower Dechen flat. On there we saw a small black speck