Wonderful day. We got our Kerman sheep right off the bat this morning. We actually went out into the mountains and spotted our first sheep from the vehicle. There was one ram with that bunch. The rut here is almost over because it’s so far south, so we kept going because that one wasn’t big enough, but then we spotted a group of five rams together not far from the first group. There were two big ones, one was an absolute beauty, so we started the long, long stalk to get to them across the broken mountain hills. We spotted them probably two miles away, so we finally got close and crawled up over the ridge but they were still too far, so we crawled a little bit closer and got within about 180 yards. They spotted us poking our heads over the hill so everything got a little bit panicky at that point. There were five rams all bunched up, and we got lost in translation somewhere because the guides were saying there’s five, and then there’s two, and then the one on the right was the curled one. So I figured it out, but Mike wasn’t sure what they meant and it was chaos for a few minutes. We finally got our act together and figured out that they meant the two on the right were the biggest ones. They had us spotted and were alert and about to run, but I made the shot and got the big one.

He is a magnificent, ancient Kerman sheep. We’re about 40 miles south of the city of Kerman, so we’re right dead center in Kerman sheep area. These sheep are a cross between a Blandford urial and a Laristan mouflan. They’ve got the curled horns like the urial, but just not quite as long. It’s the tiniest little sheep too, we figured he weighs about 90lbs at the very most. It has an itsy-bitsy body, but is a beautiful ram. We’re so excited.

So we got photos and loaded him up, brought him back and right as we arrived at camp a huge desert storm started. A sirocco came across the desert – you could see it coming from the big wall of sand blowing with 40 m/hr winds. You couldn’t see anything - it was just like Arabian Nights.

As luck would have it, the other vehicle broke down today too, so we’ve got two broken down vehicles. We jerry-rigged the first vehicle that had the major oil leak, but we’ve got to get that fixed properly. They’re trying to get it fixed today, so Mike and I skinned and fleshed the whole sheep and the guides went off to try to get that part for the truck.

Tomorrow we’re going to try to get to the city of Yazd, because there’s the big celebration starting tomorrow. That’s actually probably why we got our sheep today, because the game guard took us right to the best area because he didn’t want to be hunting when the holidays start tomorrow. They have three days of holidays, so all of us got what we wanted. I have my sheep and they get to party.

The city that we’re right beside is called Bardsir. I can see the lights of the city that’s five miles away because we’re up on the hill in the mountains.  It was a great day today, we’re all excited and happy and if we can get to Yazd, we’re going to try to video all the celebrations such as they are. The TV has been going on and on all day today with guys screaming and yelling. I can’t understand what they’re saying, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t prayers for peace and goodwill to all mankind. It isn’t the kind of holiday with Jingle Bells and Oh Holy Night - it’s pretty aggressive. I’m not sure if it’s prayers or singing or what’ they’re doing, but the TV shows tens of thousands of people all doing the same kind of chant. So I’m not sure what the holiday is, but it’s definitely different than our Christmas. 

The Next Day...

Apparently we're caught in the middle of a little local, political deal here again in this particular area and it looks like we'll be going home to British Columbia much earlier than expected - yahoo!!!! I love being home in BC for December, so I'm definitely not complaining about the shortened trip! The chief of the area didn't let us go in the good area again today. Not sure why, don't know what's going on. But our outfitter is very good at playing these political games and he's gone into town to find a gold coin and the gold coin he's going to bring back and give it to the chief and tell him it's a present from the president of Iran and that hopefully will somehow smooth over the politics and let us go into the good area. So today was kind of a slow day. We did see a lot of sheep, lots of rams, but young ones, it's kind of a nursery area. We didn't see a real big ram today at all. At the very end of the day there was one old ram that was really short horns, broomed back, and did make a stalk on him and almost pulled the trigger, but it wasn't quite perfect footage and then they started running because our entourage decided to come over the ridge and watch. Tomorrow we are hoping our little gift from the president will help us to get into the good area. Saw lots of gazelles today as well.