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Well today was a disaster... up early with a chopper here to muster some stock the west side of the Gibb Valley River. We loaded up the horses and headed to the yards. We unloaded them down the cattle race which I'm not sure I would have used. Anyway we got them there in one piece.
Roderick and Ben - the chopper pilot took off and headed out to scope the lay of the land. We on the other hand saddled up and headed down the track. We had no idea what we were up to, however Ben guided us by chopper via radios that three of us were wearing. We did a number of stops and kept following instructions. We saw 8 cattle trot past us but nothing else. We were in the saddle about six am and finished about 1pm, some incredibly rocky terrain and some outstanding horses that took us across the terrain without missing a beat. We got held up while waiting for the chopper to run a fast moving cattle into the yard and then come back for the main herd which the horses were to slot in behind.
Strangely Chris who was at the yards wouldn't answer the radio and the chopper was there for over 10min before Roderick came to the rescue. Call it bad timing but Chris must have woken up and headed to the yards startling the cattle that were already in the yards and managed to push them back out again. They then headed through a hessian wing and escaped. In the meantime the main herd had also vanished - where they all went no on knows. Somewhere in the middle Ben had managed to pull in 8 cattle. Which is a terrible effort considering we should have had over 70!
Chris was fired on the spot, not his first costly mistake. He caused a fire at the first muster site that I was at. He also before I arrived tore strips off of some campers that had used a camp site.
The chopper pilot told us to come on back and literally we saw nothing but those 8 cattle all day. We got the horses back and loaded them back up into the truck and brought them home. Once home we discovered that crows had eaten the corn beef that we were having for lunch... lots ofconversations occurred. It's an interesting dynamic as no one really knows what is happening. Anyway no one died but most of the cattle escaped. A very expensive day for the station which also makes a painful day yesterday - knowing that it was all pretty much a waste of time.
We headed back with the truck to load up the 8 cattle from the yard. The first four cruised on up the ramp with no dramas and then the last four got pressured and confused and took a lot of effort to get them on the truck. Poor little things.
Came back to camp and jumped in the dam again. Spirits are not high today.
Got to process the cattle that we have tomorrow then pack up the yards and wings. Sounds like we will be heading to the Pentecost river to do more mustering, although I think I head back to the station once we are finished here. Horse work is done so I will help Alida out with some day treks next week. This like all things is subject to change.
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Robyn Pentecost River .... sounds like you desperately needed some divine power from on high