Don't get too excited about the word "droving": the old highway boundary is only about a kilometre long. Nevertheless, it felt like a most adventuresome day, as we had to traverse several tricky spots to get to our destination. I found the flock at the top of the hill, in their usual favourite spot. We headed downhill to the northern gate into the Highway Reserve, and all went swimmingly until we got to the infamous wet gorsey gully. There, Albert came with me, but nobody else did. He and I waited for a while on the far side of the soak, and eventually we both went back to make a second try. That time it worked. From there, the next tricky bit is the gorse-infested track onto the old highway itself. That took even longer, and Janie and Chance were pretty tired by the time we convinced the leading sheep to meander down through the gorse and onto the highway. After that, it got easier again, as they were very excited about the wattle, blackwoods, she-oak and broom that line the sides of the old road, and are also getting interested in gorse as it is going into its winter flowering stage. (Gorse flowers twice a year here in Tas--part of what makes it such a challenge to manage!). We moseyed to the far end of the tarmac, where they declined to go up the hill track. I didn't try very hard, because I really wanted them to graze back again the way we came. The dogs and I detoured up the track to fix a faulty join near the trough at the top, then down again to "drove" them back into the Grazing Area proper. They took a nice turn after coming off the highway, back into that (wretchedly cold) southerly wind, and wound their way up the hill through the gorse. About the only saving grace regarding the weather today was that we kept moving, except for a hurried lunch. In a burst of optimism this morning, I stuck my sunglasses on top of my three layers of head-warming gear (headband, beanie and hoodie). And there they stayed: not a ray of sunshine all day. Yesterday, by the way, was truly lovely--I even did a bit of much-delayed garden chores. I took lots of videos with my iPad (not Instagram ones) during the day today. I've strung them together into a vimeo clip--it's about 12 minutes total length. I haven't tried to edit it, just left it as a documentary of the day. You'll find it at the end of this post.
P1: Pickup at the top of the hill
P2: Coming down the steep hill toward the wet gully
P3: On our way back along the old highway--the are browsing blackwoods and she-oaks in the background
P4: Winding their way through the gorse and up the last hill.
June 20, 2016: Shepherding from Nan Bray on Vimeo.