Dirt side roads bring all kinds of surprises, and sometimes they appear in herds. While on our way to see some 1000 yr old trees, we happened upon a cattle drive of sorts. A farmer decided to move his herd of stock to a different field, and the chosen route was the road we were on. Two men were moving the bovines and used a 4-wheeled ATV, a motorcycle and a dog. The dog hopped onto the motorcycle to allow us by and the two cowpokes gave us the go ahead. What? The beasties were in the road moving at a trot; how would we do this? Incredibly,off we went with Elsie the cow and about 60-75 of her closest friends. The Big Fella was taking it easy because cows quite literally surrounded us. Apparently we were too slow because the next thing we knew the cowpoke on the ATV came tearing up and positioned himself in front of us and motioned us to speed up. The bevy of bovines kept pace and appeared to be panicking as they were running and in my opinion -ahem- were on the verge of a STAMPEDE! The Fella swore that one appeared to be challenging him to a race. The ATV guy kept motioning us to speed up, the poor beasties directly in front of the motorhome had bouts of diarrhea which was either a bad case of nerves or a cow's version of road rage. The Big Fella thought that they were engaging in a tactic to slow us down by laying down an oil slick.(cue male adolescent laughter) It was not pretty and at one point I remarked to Laura Love Bird that I could not look. Not only was this gross but Elsie & Co. were beginning to look psychotic. It was a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie-Ok a bit of an exaggeration- and it was weird when those big brown eyes looked back at us. Give me a break here! Eventually the ATV cowpoke parted the galloping gerties- a bit like Moses parting the Red Sea- and we were through. I am quite sure that the cows were as relieved to have us gone as we were to be rid of them. We found the ancient trees and because the road in was the road out,risked getting into it with the cattle again. However on the return trip, they were no where to be found. I suspect they heard the vehicle and took cover.
The dog on the back of the motorcycle was probably thinking, "Would you get aload of these tourists?" And for the boy scouts out there, no we did not earn the cattle herding merit badge. Sigh.
Coming up really nasty camp ground managers, Queenstown, sheep, goats, and alpacas oh my!
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