Mustering cattle (if it happens the way we prefer), has some semi-social time where we (the ground staff) go to the appropriate end of the paddock and discuss such scintillating topics as the cessation of Fantales, motorbikes, that laser hair removal may have to be carried out every 6 months (sounds like false advertising), trucks, boxing at the Olympics, cattle, break dancing and how it compares to some of the (ahem) smooth moves carried out after a few alcoholic beverages, the correct methodology for cracking pecan nuts and whether it’s too early for smoko (it’s not!) in between riding/driving along every so often to keep up with the pilot’s line as he flies roughly a zigzag pattern from one side of the paddock to the other. Good cattle are staying well in front of us by moving away from the noise of the plane and as we all gradually get closer, ground staff are called to cattle to keep them walking in the right direction, or to bend their trajectory slightly so they pick up more cattle along the way, and so on and so forth. This generally gives you long periods of peaceful relaxation.
Brief bursts of intense excitement generated by a beast that decides today is not the day to cooperate are also enjoyed (except by the Boss, who regards this sort of carry-on as Very Bad behaviour on the cow’s part), so long as it doesn’t happen too often, or slow the flow of the day/cattle too much.
Then there are the other days, where there are cold winds, cranky cows and the other other days, where a passing helicopter calls up to make sure you and your pilot know where he is in the airspace as he passes by…..followed very shortly afterwards by a request for rescue because he and his helicopter had just crashed. The muster is temporarily put on hold. Happily he a) knew where he was and could describe his approximate position, b) was pretty close to a road, c) wasn’t badly hurt and d) didn’t go down 5 minutes later because he would have been over some very thick timber by then.
Our pilot flew over and found him while the Boss went back for a vehicle to pick him up, further rescue plans were organised, our pilot came back and mustering was resumed.
