Ah, ha. You thought, perhaps, that once on American soil that the sheep stories would dissipate. Well…that would be a logical assumption but you would be wrong.
Yesterday, we headed south to the California desert and arrived at Borrego Springs. See the sidebar and click on the link for Borrego Springs for more info. On our way, we had to stop to take this picture. Out in the middle of no where. That’s what is cool about taking 2 lane roads…you never know what you are going to see.
Our old friends, Al and Charlie (she’s a woman), recently moved there to be able to ride their bikes year round although they will escape the summer desert heat by heading to friendly weather. Anyway, we wanted to see them on our way to Palm Desert which is our final destination to meet friends and play golf.
Our visit included a visit to the a Day of the Dead festival and an excellent pork dinner at their home. But the best was yet to come. This morning we took a walk to see if we could see any big horn sheep that reportedly live in the mountains behind the golf course. And this is what we saw. See the sheep on the mountain? A far cry from the NZ sheep we had just seen. These guys live in the rocks…not nice green pastures with plenty to eat.
So imagine our surprise when the sheep came down the mountain without any prompting from us. They blend in so look really, really close. Until they jaunt down from the mountain and head for the golf course. Pardon the thumb on the top of the picture. Just too excited to concentrate.
Then…
the others started coming down. And more came.
And then more….
And more…
And they walked right by me. I was hiding behind a tree. The first male stared us down and all my friends and Rayman moved to the lawn, you can see some of them in the distance. I moved behind a tree by myself. Once the lead males walked by the rest of the sheep followed except for a few which stayed on the mountain at various points…must like look-out men. It was fabulous.
Then there was a steady stream…OMG. And where were they going? To the GOLF COURSE!!! And then after grazing on the 7th fairway…they headed back up the mountain with the aid of the greensman beating a golf cart with a golf club…
What an incredible experience. I accused our friends of hiring the animals to pose and visit for us…they denied it. This is not an everday occurrence and we were very luck to see it. Oh, and all these pictures were taken with with our iphones.
The two pictures above were taken by Al and he used a camera with a zoom lens.
We then made our way to Palm Desert to join our friends in Palm Desert for a week of golf. There will be stories!!
Leave Comment