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“I’m a big girl, Ryan. And I have great camping gear to handle snow.”
He opened his mouth to protest. “And I know how to look out for dodgy branches and trees and find a safe spot to camp.”
“She knows what she’s doing, mate.”
Rosie regarded me cautiously and then turned her attention to her stock horse, checking the bridle.
“Keep an eye on her, yeah?” Ryan whispered quietly, handing over the satellite phone.
I sighed. “I’m not going to abandon her on the mountain.”
“Hope this improves your mood.” Ryan deposited a thermos of hot tea into my hands.My saviour. “Use the CB radio once you’re at the hut. I’m expecting you to radio in by five p.m., understood?”
“Yep.”
“Good luck, brother.
Ryan offered me a shy smile as Rosie mounted up.
“I’m not coming back without the Aussie Whites.”
“Just come back safe. With as many sheep as you can find.”
The plan was to place up to six cameras on known burrows along our boundary with the national park. Hades’ huge burrow already had a camera, as did two other burrows, and Rosie was placing additional cameras for extra footage as well as swap out the memory cards on the older cameras.
Rosie insisted she was fine on her own, and I was happy to mind horses and dogs, keeping them away from any wombats.
With horses tethered on trees and the dogs watered and lying in the sun, I sent up the drone, hoping to catch a glimpse of my missing sheep.
There was plenty of sheep scat here, and fresh. With the cold front moving in, the sheep would be looking for shelter and fresh grass and the high country around the hut would be in small supply of that.
Herding them into the holding yard and into the pen at the shepherd’s hut was going to be a challenge.
On screen, a speck of cotton wool darted between boulders, and then two. Three.
The Aussie Whites were just ahead of us.
I pushed the drone forward over the tree line and caught more on screen.
Perhaps the drone could be useful as part of the muster itself. In more open country, the sheep would run from it, helping to push them to a holding yard.
I brought the drone back as a breeze picked up and switched everything off to conserve battery life.
Rosie appeared soon after as I poured tea from the thermos. She eagerly accepted the cup that acted as a lid and shared it between us.
“I’ve placed six cameras here. Two on Hades’ burrow to get the traffic in both directions. The game trail past that burrow is well used. Lots of scat everywhere.”
She pushed her curls out of her eyes, her cheeks flushed from the cold, but her grin was bliss. She was doing what she loved.
She caught me staring and we both looked away.
There had been no time or opportunity with four horses and two dogs to talk. We’d managed with small talk until now.
“Speaking of scat,” I said, accepting the mug back from her. “There’s sheep shit all over here. I have found some using the drone. They’re just ahead, at least, ten. If we can push them gently towards the hut with the dogs, that would be great.”
“It’s mid morning. How long to the hut?”
“Slowly on horseback? An hour tops? Depends if the dogs get skittish and take off after a roo or an anxious sheep.” I waved towards the sky. “And the clouds are rolling in. We should make tracks so we can muster some of the sheep today.”
