Natureview photography

After we made camp we still had a few hours of daylight left. We decided to make the best out of it and make a first dash for the oxen. The sun was shining, but as the animals were sitting on the north slope of the mountain they were in the shade already. The wind was quite strong, blowing some drift snow over the mountain. This resulted in a great photo opportunity, but unfortunately one that I didn’t take. I saw a thin layer of drift snow come over the mountain, being backlit by the low sun… But in my hurry to get to the Muskoxen, I didn’t want to stop for it… I never saw it again…

The Muskoxen were a bit more cooperative. Three oxen were resting on the ridge. We approached them slowly (on foot of course) from a little elevation. Sun in our back, but not trying to hide too much. If the animals notice us in advance, they can more easily show that we were coming too close and we wouldn’t scare them. This worked really well as we could get reasonable close without getting any reaction at all… We decided not to push it and risk the chance of scaring them. Wouldn’t be good for the animals and not for us. They can become aggressive and if we chase them, we wouldn’t have another chance the next day. But we were really happy with our first real encounter!!

part IV