Waterfall Boar



Weka scattered as we walked across the lawn. On seeing three pig dogs and me walking toward them, these birds that once could fly were now wishing evolution would hurry up and release them to the sky once more. Up ahead was the spot I intended to enter the bush for our hunt today. A group of oystercatchers looked on from the shore as we disappeared into the native bush.
We had left the pups Jude and Chi behind today. No time for games or mishaps, this was the start of the shortest day pig hunt, put on by the Seddon Hotel and we were entered.
The boat ride here was hardly silky smooth with a sea left over from the dying northwester. Now in the shadow of 500m plus hills the air was just a little katabatic as we walked on through the native bush.

I had been here a couple of times before so was starting to get the country scoped out. This area is steep to begin with, consisting of very thick supple jack and kie kie in places, but then flattens out, about when you get your second wind, to nice beech forest. 

Hunting by myself I had Ming loose on the find, and Lu and Puk on leads making the going slow. Climbing in and over the supple jack it was wet and slippery under foot due to recent heavy rain, so we picked our way through to the bottom of a ridge were I had stopped an old boar the year before.

In that hunt, the old man boar had dragged me miles from sea level over a 750m saddle then down to sea level again before the holder Puk and me caught up with Ming and Lu who had been on his trail for the last couple of hours. Having caught up with him at some stage, the old campaigner once over the top wasn't stopping though, so when Puk finally left me after hearing the two sisters bailing ahead, we were back at sea level again. I staggered in and finished things with a knife then dragged the boar down the track I was currently walking up.


Old Man Boar in question.

The light started to improve as we climbed up to a wallow hole that is the best I have seen bar none. It is set on a spur amongst the native black beech; the spur flattened out forming a small basin about the size of a house with size enough for three wallows in some perfect wallowing soil. A pig oasis no less, and it didn't disappoint, no fresh wallowing but plenty of fresh marks. Ming started getting busy then tracked away, so I let Lu loose and the pair then disappeared over and around the ridge.

I'm never sure if they are competing between themselves or are just trying to kill me, but they were soon 300m away. Anyway me and Puk wandered on waiting for things to develop. They were now over the next ridge 500m away. There they seemed to stop, although not a sound apart from the birds could be heard. Me and Puk blundered on, her loose now as I was sick of leading her. Still no sound. According to the GPS, only 100m to go.

Then ‘hello’ we ran into a-mob of stinking goats. “Great”, I thought, “the bitches have grabbed one and that’s why no barking can be heard”. Me of little faith! I called Puk to heel and moved quietly through the mob down to where the tracker said Ming and Lu were, hoping to bust them and tell them off.

To my surprise I could hear a good old scrap going on below in the thick stuff. Puk soon leapt into the fray. I heard her latch on as a muffled sequel could be heard. Thinking the pig was under 100 lb. I charged onto the scene to find what turned out to be a 125 lb. (56 kg) boar with two dogs latched onto his ears and Puk on the front hock.

The dogs weren't having it all their own way. The pig shook them off and lined me up. Much to my relief the dogs sensing a treat to their food supply latched back onto the angry boar, that then turned, allowing me to grab his tail then slip onto his back, sending a knife through his ribs finding a main artery.

Sitting on the pig waiting for the pig to die I was praising my girls. It wasn't even 9 am I had hardly broken a sweat and I had a decent pig to weigh-in Saturday. The only problem was the spot I was in, because it might take me to Saturday to get this pig out. Anyway, time for a few pics with Ming and Lu posing as usual. Puk the shy one sitting away getting her breath back and nursing a neck wound (nothing serious).
 

Lu Posing with the Boar.

So off we go, down and around the ridge dragging the pig. Weeks before I had been in this area and was hoping to find an easier way out. Unfortunately I soon found myself in a nasty creek wishing I had dragged the pig back the way I'd come. There were waterfalls I had to climb up and around after tossing the boar off. In fact the shittiest creek I have ever been in.

Mr Boar after being thrown over one of the many waterfalls.

After about an hour of this I noticed Ming and Lu had disappeared. Looking at the tracker I could see they were climbing up and away on a scent. So me and Puk left the pig, marking the spot for retrieval later, and set off after them. I could hear them bailing occasionally in the distance until they disappeared over the top ridge. An hour later we were finally catching them, then we got ourselves bluffed. Puk then found a deer to chase. She finally gave up on that and arrived just as I caught up with the sisters who had just given up on the pig as well, deciding to take a drink in the creek. Bugger! But never mind; he would keep for another day.

Happy in the knowledge I had a pig in the bag we set off to retrieve it. I fed the dogs a little Exceed to give them a boost - just in case we walked into anything on the way back. Sure enough they were soon on the trail of something, and whatever it was it wasn't stopping.

All I could think about was getting my pig out before dark, which I eventually did, but only went home with Lu as Ming and Puk decided to camp up on the ridge once dark. I had them on the tracker but didn't have the energy to climb to the ridge again. The next morning I arrived at daybreak, tied the boat up then climbed up to the ridge. The dogs were very please to see me, which reminds me of a joke:

"Lock your wife and your dog in the garage all day, then on arriving home see who's pleased to see you."

The Seddon Hotel weigh-in on Saturday was great, very well organized, with great prizes and a band.

www.thebluewaterlodge.co.nz

Popular posts from this blog

Lost in Asia My old mate Kelly (The Admiral) who has a sister ship to mine and encouraged me to sail offshore said “Rod if you make it to Asia, you will never leave”, he might be right. Not a lot to report, currently anchored in Busuanga bay (Busuanga island) northern Palawan. I really like it here, great spot, good internet, water 1 peso a litre, a 35 minute scooter ride to Coron the main town, four resorts in the bay so plenty of dinner choices, nice breeze most days. I’m heading home late April and on return will head down early June to Malaysia (borneo) for the SouthWest monsoon season, then come back here in November.
Read more

Jannine the sacrifice

Image
 I'd been having the usual problems with stinking Billy Goats and Red Skins (Deer) lately, bringing a couple of pups on has added to the problems, the Girls though had been catching the odd pig, between dogging deer into the tide and chewing on bloody Goats.  A couple of weeks ago they even found a rear pig, a very grumpy little boar in-fact, this fella wouldn't have weighed 85lb, but he had a bad case of small mans disease and managed to rip Ming and Lu up to the point the scene was looking like a Tarantino movie, mainly maybe because it took my sad old tired ass awhile to get to the punch-up, anyway that was two weeks ago and the darlings had recovered from their wounds, so we were rearing to go friday morning, friday being the start of the Woodburne tavern PIG& deer hunt!   My sister Di and partner had some friends here for a break over the long weekend, they were chilling out after the wine harvest know-less and one of them Jannine had hunted wit...
Read more

Getting back out there.

Image
It had been a sad few days, with lots of reminders of Ming everywhere. It's times like this I start to question why I hunt with dogs, whats the point! There are lots of arguments around Pig hunting with dogs, humans have been hunting with dogs, since not long after the first wolf was first tamed, we then started breeding them, to the point where we now have a huge variety, mainly descendants of hunting breeds, even the poodle was a hunting dog originally used by wealthy Germans to hunt ducks. Without a doubt, dogs love to hunt and they especially love to hunt with their owners, who I believe get just as much pleasure from the hunting as the dogs do, just like we love to compete, huntings hardwired into our nature. Some of-course say pig hunting is barbaric. This argument coming from someone who doesn't eat animals or use animal products, is a compelling argument, but for anyone who eats meat, yet then likes to criticise pig hunters, I would say, if you can't bring ...
Read more