We went to an alpaca farm. There was much, much more though. I’ll give you a grand tour.
We go inside. The gift shop is a shed full of wooden wind chimes and everything to do with Stunned Emu Designs. You won’t know what I mean, so here’s a Stunned Emu Design.
Here’s another:
According to all the signs, the artist is Wendy Binks and she grew up here. Pentland sure is proud of her. Her artwork’s everywhere. The lady at the counter is giving four bags of animal food and saying we can’t give the joeys too much. There are joeys here?
When we get out, there is a cage with three cockatiels. I’d like a cockatiel. Or a cockatoo or a corella. As we continue, there are more birds. There’s a galah that says “Scratch scratch” – literally. Yeah, it talks. Dad really does scratch it, but cautiously. Dad doesn’t want his fingers bitten off. There are bunches of guinea fowls screeching on the floor of the cage. There are two koalas facing in the other direction. Then we get to the alpacas. Two are looking a bit odd. One looks like an Ewok and another has dangerous-looking teeth. Actually I find out later that the toothy one is really a llama.
‘Ewok’ alpaca
Toothy llama
There are also a couple of joeys. So that’s the joeys! They’re ever so friendly. They aren’t allowed to have too much food, though, remember!
Oh! A white alpaca just ripped the food bag out of my hand! Mum gives me her bag.
There are ‘racing’ pigeons hooting in a cage. Next is a load of goats. There’s an emu as well. I feed it out of my hand. It isn’t safe, really. The emu grabs the food out my hand, its beak clipping firmly around my palm and immediately unclipping. The goats are a lot gentler, munching contentedly on the food in my hand. Now the emu needs to be distracted to stop it from snapping up the food meant for goats. The emu is greedy.
There are lots of small chickens and roosters squawking in clumps. Then there are the guinea pigs and rabbits. Th Two rabbits are unusually large, but cute all the same. We see two ferrets curled up in a cage. Then there’s a sheep and a pig. They’re really loud because it’s nearly 3.00pm, their feeding time and they’re getting seriously peckish. The pig is squeaking noisily and the sheep are making distinctive ‘maa’ sounds. I suddenly see a cat on the stack of hay bales. I tell Mum and she spots that the cat is wearing what looks like a plastic bib. Strange!
There’s a camel with a face exactly the same as the alpacas, but it doesn’t look as if it’s up for eating food.
We walk on and see a big furry animal. It’s the size of a Shetland Pony, but there’s a sign asking not to feed it as it’s still on milk. Although we don’t know the exact age, Dad is still amazed, saying over and over again how young it must be. It must be quite young. There are some foxes in an enclosure. They’d have to be locked up, otherwise they’d feast royally on the chickens and run wild.
There are two more emus, Em and Mu, and a a real Shetland Pony. There are two fully grown big furry animals and a sign saying they’re Scottish Highland cattle.
It’s almost 3.00pm (feeding time), so we walk back to the area with the chickens, the rabbits and guinea pigs, the alpacas, the camel, the sheep and the pig, the goats and the emu, and the ferrets. After a minute or two there’s a woman in a blue shirt striding up to us. She asks us if we’d like to feed the animals. We say yes. First she unlocks the pigeon cage and the pigeons start racing around – it was their exercise time. She then produces four milk bottles and automatically four joeys come bounding up. We all start happily feeding the joeys. By the time we finish, Mum has three pigeon poos on her head. Yes, the pigeons are still on the loose. We then feed the sheep and the pig. We also spot a week-old lamb and feed that too. We feed the baby Highland cow and find that it is one month old. We discover there is a two month old highland cow with the emu and the goats. The woman in a blue shirt disappears and we wash our hands and depart too.
You like the grand tour?