My Day Out With A Herd Of Alpacas

Everyone's favourite thing to do in lockdown has been to take a nice relaxing stroll. When the sun is out and the birds are singing, it can't get better. Unless of course you're walking with a herd of alpacas. 

I spent my afternoon at Hilly Ridge Farm, home to many alpacas - including some prize winning beauties. Hilly Ridge offers an amazing opportunity to trek with the alpacas around the countryside, meet and feed newborn alpacas (so cute!) and even complete an obstacle course with an alpaca of your choice. 

Now, if you haven't already decided this is the best day out ever let me tell you more. 

Our day started when we arrived at Hilly Ridge Farm in Suffolk at 10:30am. We were met by Jo, the farm owner, who introduced us to eight beautiful male alpacas. Jo showed us how to hold the lead, and the dos and don'ts of alpaca trekking. After this we chose our alpacas. 

I was paired up with a needy grey boy called Ralph, who really missed his friend Echo today. Little Ralph was reluctant to head off at first without his friend, but once we got going he had a real spring in his step!

We trekked around the Suffolk countryside, jumping over streams, trotting over bridges and stopping for a sneaky nibble of Willow to eat. (Ralph that is, not me) 

After we got back to the paddock, Ralph and his alpaca friends went back into their pen for some shade and some food. Now it was time for us to head over to meet the mums and babies. 

Now, if you think alpacas are cute you would be right, but have you ever seen newborn baby alpacas. The levels of cuteness are off the scale. We hopped into a new paddock with an entire herd of mums and babies and a tray of food each. Now I thought I loved food, but these alpaca mummas are something else. They are all over you trying to get every last scrap of food from your hand or tray - talk about up close and personal! 

Jo told us if you bob down low the babies might come over and meet you - it's literally the cutes thing ever. If someone said to me 'you could sit in this paddock for the rest of the day hanging out with the mums and babies' I'd bite their hand off. Naturally, I was the last one to leave after having some strokes with the newest baby who was only born YESTERDAY. 

Next it was obstacle course time. We headed back to our original boys and everyone took turns choosing the alpaca they wanted to race with. Of course, I stuck with my number one Ralph. We'd bonded. We were tight. Convinced we were going to be a winning team Ralph and I headed to the start line... or at least I tried to get him too. My guy Ralph was having none of it. Thankfully, after some gentle persuasion he decided to give it a go - landing us last place with the slowest time. Don't worry Ralph, you're still my winner. 

By the end of the afternoon I didn't want to go home and I certainly wanted to spend more time with alpacas. 

So, now I'm just figuring out how I can start an alpaca farm and life in countryside bliss. A girl can dream.