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The start of a sporting week in Caithness, at first trying our luck stalking around Broubster and fishing in the White Lock without initial success
I started a week of much early-morning and late-night activity, balanced by the need to make mealtimes at the hotel and also to look after Sam which left little time to record what we were doing in my journal. In retrospect, I can record that we spent our first day stalking around Broubster on our own, having little success, but then tried the White Loch again with even less as the weather was still very cold.
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Thormaid hare shooting and Thurso shopping as I trace my fuel loss to a corroded Range Rover fuel tank
Disappointingly, another day of chilling wind that led to a blank couple of sessions fishing the White Loch. Better luck on arrival at Thormaid when I shot a hare with a single .22 bullet. We met Liz and Duncan from Fountain Forestry at the estate at 10.00am and spent a couple of hours looking at the compartments of forest planted in several different years, finishing with the hardwoods that were planted on the hillsides since we were last here. They had been seriously curtailed by the hares and I am now under instructions to shoot as many as possible, Into Thurso over lunchtime where I had my petrol tank looked at.
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The day rifle zeroing and fishing at Thormaid missing one, hooking and losing another that I negligently had taken for granted in defiance of using a landing net
I was awake at 6.00am, an hour earlier than my intended time, and so bathed, shaved and got out to feed and exercise Sam before breakfast. A nice meal and then off to Thormaid with Nigel, loading all the guns and fishing tackle into my car. Once we arrived, I left Nigel to zero the three rifles whilst I took Sam up to the White Loch where we tried a bit of fishing together. Sam had been very excited by the rifle fire to start with but later settled down and got more used to it. I had to go and help Nigel later as he was making very heavy weather of the zeroing - using targets all too much of a distance away and making no use of the telescope to save the legwork back and forwards.
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The journey with Nigel and Sam from Paxton arriving in Caithness on a sunny evening for forestry meetings and deer stalking. A long journey with at least three breaks to stretch our legs and get fuel.
A treat to be able to use a dog kennel and run there, last used by their old dog Duke who died a year ago of old age.
I had bought Sam with a view to his use as a sporting dog and now I was to take him for the first time to Scotland. I was awake before 5.00am and, having had a bath and hair-wash last night, was able to quietly shave and dress to take Sam for a good walk for half an hour at 5.15am. This gave me fifteen minutes to load up the remainder of the car and be ready for Nigel who I expected at 6.00am. Of course, he was a bit late and so it was around 6.30am that we left with the car full and Sam in the back. but Sam did at least make the trip without too much difficulty. He was losing patience at the end, but we arrived at 6.00pm (after eleven and a half hours) on a fine and sunny Highlands evening.
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