Laura and I realised we had a bit of a soft spot for llamas when we cycled past a field of them last summer. They really are the funniest creatures to look at and they just make us smile everyone time we see one so when we found a website offering "llama trekking", there was no thinking about it ... we were off!!!
The children were deposited at school and then it was time to hit the M25. It wasn't a bad journey and before we knew it we were at Ashdown Forest Llama Park. It was in beautiful rolling countryside and there was field after field FULL OF LLAMAS!
big ones and ...
BABY ONES!!!!
We booked in and went to meet the llamas we would be walking with. They were being harnessed up and were having a last bit of grooming so they were tip-top ready for their "walkers"! There were going to be 7 trekkers on our walk and we were given some instruction on how to handle them and what to do if they suddenly decided to take a different route to the one planned! At this point I was a little apprehensive as close-up was suddenly rather different to admiring in a distant field ... they were rather large and their heads were unnervingly close to ours!
Not so bad ... with a gate between us!
ooooh, ello!!!!!
After a few introductory carrots we were all bonding with our llamas sufficiently to begin the trek!
And we were off! Laura and I were sharing a llama and she took first "go" ... I was quite happy to bide my time!
We'd been told that Nicholas (our llama!) was very partial to diving off into bracken without warning so Laura was ready when he suddenly took a detour. He was also very cuddly and not shy at letting his feelings known!
We trekked through the countryside for about an hour (surprising a few golfers as we went!) pausing every so often to admire the views. It was a lovely peaceful plod (when we could stop ourselves laughing!) and a perfect time-out moment! By the time we were back at the stable we were all firm friends with our llamas ... infact it was a terrible wrench to hand them back!
awwwwh ... sooooo soft!
awwwh ... do you think they'll notice if we take him home?!
After we eventually and reluctantly returned him to his stable, we went and bought far too many irresistable souvenirs in the lovely shop and then jumped back in the car and got home before school pick up time!
It was an unusual way to spend a couple of hours but we just had the funniest time and we completely loved it!
Laura and I realised we had a bit of a soft spot for llamas when we cycled past a field of them last summer. They really are the funniest creatures to look at and they just make us smile everyone time we see one so when we found a website offering "llama trekking", there was no thinking about it ... we were off!!!
