The minutes of waiting were agonizing. We had even cold, staying on the wind. At last Petro went down to us and asked to follow him. The animals went not the way we were waiting for them but significantly lower.
The sun was almost setting behind the peaks of rocks. There was the only chance to approach tur for shooting. The real race had begun. We ran down across the loose gravel. Then up the rocks. And down and up. It seemed that we were in the army and were overcoming the obstacle courses. I could hardly remember how many ridges we had crossed but not less than five.
The faces were covered by dirty-sticky crusts. Sweat drenched our eyes. But we could not to stop to take breath. The males moved on and on to our right. We should be in time to intercept them before the darkness came.
At last Atsamas and Petro reached the definite place and laid down on one of the ridges. The thought flashed – the chase is over! I came to them and heard they said that the males were not far and we should shoot now because they were not sure that we could to do later. Not that day.
The herd, consisted of 30 individuals, stopped on the slope to graze. Zhaisan joined them. He needed to calm and to breathe easily. But it was hard after such the long and exhausting race. The animals looked calm but the light day was almost over and he shouldn't hesitate with the shot.
Zhaisan put his carbine ChristensenArmsкалибра .338 LapuaMag on the ridge's rocks slowly. The shooting distance was 315 meters. I prepared the camera. And pushed the record. It was harder for me to find the landmark then for Zhaisan who used gun’s optics. I was afraid to be late to focus on the herd. But could do it. Kept them in a frame. Zhaisan was aiming the male, pointed by Atsamas. The shot cut the gorge silence. We all saw the dust, rose into the air from one of the males. The herd took off and ran the same route, they came there. We saw, he hit it but the male ran so confidently that we couldn’t believe it. I had seen and not once, how the wounded animals such as a maral, an ibex and a boar ran several hundred meters and then fell dead.
We didn’t see it fell and were confused. It was getting dark.
We'd discussed before leaving the camp that the hunter could try to get the second trophy if he wanted. The goats quickly overcame small gorges and ridges in a half of km below us. At that moment Zhaisan applied all his long-distance shooting skills, he trained with the coach in Kazakhstan.
After the last shot one of the running males stumbled and rolled down the slope.
500 meters to the running aim!
I had no doubt! He got the trophy! Atsamas took off his cap to greet his successful shot and to thank Afshati. We all congratulated the hunter who deserved that hard-labor trophy and impressed the local guides by the accurate shots. But there was no time to exult for long - the twilight fell. Our team divided into two groups. Petro and Elbrus went to look for the first tur. While Zhaisan, Atsamas and I began to descend to the second one and we hardly found it. It was already quite dark, and it was difficult to see anything even at five paces. It took us not less than half of an hour to discover it. There was no evading hunter’s joy. The tur happened to be old male which fought from its youth because its horns were damaged from both sides and instead of sharp horn’s tips it had huge nodules. It added the trophy some exotica and allowed to to include it to the abnormal category.
Meanwhile, the night had descended on the mountains.
Afshati gave us one more gift except the trophy. It was water. We drank all we had during the race and there were almost no springs at this height. We sweat a lot and lost a significant amount of moisture, our mouths felt dry. The more valuable it was to find a small spring, flowing from under rocks and moss. We were filling all the bottles we had while the guides butchered the carcass. Water was filling slowly but it was enough to drink and to keep a spare.
Night in the mountains.
It was time to think about the camp. In the dark we found the small and flat place where four from our team could seat. Petro and Elbrus were still out looking for the first trophy in the dark. We were settling when noticed their flashlights and pointed to our shelter. It happened that they found the first male and it also had a good size.
We had just a modest dinner to celebrate the hard way we overcame and great trophies we got. Later in the base camp we fixed this annoying discrepancy. After a meal we tried to find the place where we could lay the mats and to spend the night in the sleeping bags. But we were not successful in it so and built a parapet from the stones. The flattest stones we had put on the top. They were the base for our beds. Then inserted sticks around to protect and not to fall down in a sleep. Fortunately, it didn’t happen.
I had barely time to enjoy the depth of the clear mountain night sky with myriads of stars before falling asleep.
In the morning we woke up early and pack everything quickly. Then went to the second trophy. It was a nice male with the classic form horns Capracylindricornis. We made pictures and the guys butchered it and sorted meat into the backpacks.
The descend.
The way back with the additional weight was not lighter as the reader could think. We crossed the same gorges and ridges. The way led us through the thick Acadia bushes with sharp thorns, stunted trees and huge boulders. There were no any paths at all. Even deer and turs preferred to choose another way. But we had no choice just onward and downward!
We regularly fell, slide on the wet and loose soil then stood up and went on. The sun was getting warm what made our way even more difficult. Fortunately, there were streams with crystal clear mountain water. We stopped there to drink and to cool off.
We could barely move our feet at the end of that hike because had to balance with heavy weight between trees and boulders all the way to the camp. We were pretty battered by sharp thorns and boughs. When I saw the road and the car waited for us, then relaxed and felt I was flying down. One of the birch-tree boughs caught the eye when I was falling. I tried to hold on with the hand and flayed the skin from the wrist to the elbow. Probably I stepped on the non-stable stone and could not balance on it with the weight I had behind my shoulders.
I had already had nice decoration on my left leg and added the new ones on my arm and the right eyelid.
My stave- stick stayed to lay near the path, parallel to it.
My legs were shaking from fatigue and exertion.
I looked funny from the side. But people who were used to go in the mountains knew that it wasn’t so. Nobody was kidding.
The sweet and juicy watermelon waited for us in the car!
Visiting the Grizzly
First of all we had to take Atsamas -Grizzly back to home to Dargavs. And we did it. And there we were captured. His family cooked dinner and seated us at the table. We were happy to share a meal with those nice and hospitable people. Everybody said the traditional toasts for Afshati and St. George.
Then we said good buy and drove to the base. One of the guides offered to make a stop and to swim in the hot springs of the Karmadon gorge. How we could refuse to warm the tired muscles in the healing water of the Caucasus. The spring were really hot not less than 40 degrees! It seemed that lactic acid in our muscles dissolved like sugar in hot water.
Ironically, we continued to endure hot temperature even we left the hot springs. It was 30 degrees above zero when we drove down to the valley. The locals said it was about 41 degrees in the time when we were driving. I couldn't understand why I didn’t feel cool. The hot car engine added additional degrees.
It was a real happiness to arrive to the base. It was cool and comfortable there and dinner had been already cooked.
We didn’t change clothes which soaked up sweat and were crusted with salt. There was a washing machine on the base and we immediately loaded it.
Then we took a shower, changed clothes and went down to the canteen to celebrate the success of our hunter. Next day we were going to have rest, to keep strength before the chamois hunting.
