Alpaca Encounter!

An excited group of 14 young people travelled to Haguelands Village in Romney Marsh for a fun filled day with alpacas, reptiles and more.

After a brief introduction, the group jumped into a trailer to meet the alpacas. After a bumpy ride through the farm they arrived at the alpaca enclosure where they were able to pet the alpacas and feed them carrots. "It was so cool being able to stroke them and walk around with them in their enclosure" said Maisie.

After games and a picnic lunch in the sun it was time for the Animal World Encounters to meet the reptiles and creepy crawlies! First up was a bearded dragon, followed by an even bigger lizard which everybody got to hold. Snakes followed with corn snakes, an even bigger python and lastly a hairy tarantula!  After a pep talk and a bit of motivation for the young people, the tarantula made it onto all of our hands.

"The scariest bit was seeing that there was a tarantula! I can't believe I let it crawl up my arm!" said Jordan. The exotic animals were a bit nerve racking but the young people were brave and conquered their fears by holding all of them! Everyone was proud of themselves for being so brave and enjoyed learning about the different animals.

After holding snakes, lizards and spiders, we were pleasantly surprised to be shown some baby raccoons, small enough to fit in your hand. Needless to say, nobody was quick to put the fluffy pups down as they were the tarantula!

A trip to the shop concluded the day of animal encounters and fun and everyone piled back on to the minibus to go home. Everyone had a great day and enjoyed all the activities, having seen and held new animals and conquered their fears.