Every year I like to do something for my birthday, whether it’s a trip to the Yorkshire Dales, skiing at an indoor ski centre, or going for afternoon tea. This year, turning 29, I decided to do something a bit different. I decided to go to Alpaca Trekking. It was so much fun!
The idea all came about when my little sister, Cara mentioned she was off Llama Trekking in Wales. It sounded so much fun to do. I decided to do some research on Llama Trekking. As I did, Alpaca Trekking also kept popping up. I then went onto researching the difference between the two animals. I soon fell in love with alpaca’s and how adorable they look. Just look at these photos of them, surely you agree?
My birthday fell on the Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. This meant booking into somewhere that does alpaca trekking on my actual birthday was difficult. Most places were fully booked. However, this could be due to me deciding only a few weeks before my birthday I actually wanted to do it! Luckily, after ringing around a number of different farms, we finally found someone who could fit us in. Teesdale Alpacas kindly squeezed us on a Sunday morning. I was ever so grateful!
Teesdale Alpacas is located in the North Pennies, just off the A66. Run by a lovely man and woman, it’s hidden away down a track, passing through a couple of gates. The trekking started at 10.30 am as just started to rain. However, we all agreed to go ahead with the trekking. I recommend wearing walking boots or old trainers, as they are likely to get muddy. Alex and I were in a group with four other people. Normally they like to run in small groups of four but out of their kindness, they squeezed us two in. They keep their groups small so they don’t end up overworking their alpacas. The alpacas only tend to get taken out once a day and the farm likes to run two groups of trekking a day.
Once we had dipped our walking boots into disinfect, we headed over to the male alpaca’s were we got given an informative talk about them. I found this very interesting. The male alpaca’s are the only ones that they walk.
After our talk, we were handed over our Alpaca to walk. Mine was called Hercules, a bonny, cream wool alpaca. Alpacas don’t walk very fast and get scared very easily. We started our walk around the field, as we did a rabbit scared one of the alpaca’s in our group. As it did, they all jumped and tried running away. Luckily, I managed to keep hold of mine! One guy got dragged along the grass by the alpaca. This rarely happens, but you do need to remember they are prey animals. They are used to listening out for sounds in the distance but not close up. Therefore, any loud sounds or fast movements near them can startle them. If one gets scared, they all seem to do.
To calm them down after their fright, we continued to walk around the field before heading on the path through the woods. As we continued on our trek one of the alpaca’s decided to have a wee. They then all decided to join in. Not only that, but you have also seen to have very large bladders. They can wee for England!
After the walk around the field, they seemed a lot calmer. We then took them down a muddy track towards the river and fed them with some food that we were given to carry in our pockets at the beginning. They love their food! Alex’s alpaca gave him very little chance to even get the food out of the bag before he tried to grab the food from him!
After the trekking, the owners took us over to the female alpaca’s and showed us their offspring. The baby alpacas were very cute! If you were lucky to have any food leftover, you were given the opportunity to feed the females and the babies.
The Alpaca Trekking was one fantastic, memorable experience and a great birthday treat. I highly recommend it! If you would like to have a go, here it the website of the people whom we booked it through Teesdale Alpacas
