Our Alpaca Trekking Adventure in the Kent Downs

Alpaca Trekking

On Easter Sunday, my boyfriend and I went alpaca trekking! We trekked in the Kent Downs at Alpaca Annie, and lucking the rain kept off and the weather stayed nice throughout our visit.

Alpacas are my absolute favourite animal and every time I see one, either in real life or not, frankly I scream. My 21st birthday was last month, and Jordan booked this as a secret surprise for me!

The Kent Downs are about an hour away from where we live, and we enjoyed the drive once we had gotten off of the motorway. It is a really pretty and serene part of the country, I think I would definitely like to visit there more.

When we got to Alpaca Annie, our alpacas were lined up and ready to go! They like to be in a particular order on their walk or they get a bit bamboozled and rearrange themselves.

Our alpaca expert Lara introduced us to the alpacas, I picked Mother’s Legacy (or Legs) to walk and Jordan picked Jolly Jim, all the alpacas had really cute names.

My alpaca Legs was a Suri – these alpacas have long shiny hair and it feels really silky, they are also a fairly rare breed. All alpacas originate from South America, mainly Bolivia, Peru and Chile, like Jordan’s Jim who was a Huacaya alpaca. These alpacas are super fluffy like teddy bears.

Our trek was led by Lara and also Fennel, a natural born alpaca leader. He took his job very seriously, looking around to do head counts, and he’s far too a busy man to have a nibble of some carrots.

I didn’t know we were going to be able to hand feed the alpacas until Lara told us, and I was so excited! They are all so gentle when they take food from your hand and stick out their lips to gobble up the carrots, they like carrots because they contain natural sugars but they mainly eat grass as it’s best for their four chamber stomachs.

I learned a lot about alpacas on our trek, for example, although they look super cuddly they are actually very sensitive and do not like to be touched on their head or back. They also get upset when you stand behind them because you could be up to something shifty. Another good tip we learned was to stroke their necks with the back of your hand so they know you’re not going to grab them.

We had an amazing day, it was even better than I could have imagined! We really got to socialise with the alpacas and we learned so much. We even met three llamas as well, who were wonderful, and also carrot fans. It was an absolutely fantastic experience!

Thank you Jordan ❤