UK - Day Four

Day four back in the old country and, well, there’s only so much that you can get out of dealing with bureaucracy and making up for lost time in fish and chips and real ale. I don’t remember it being so humid here, I suppose that I’ve got used to the dry climate of South Australia and it seems sticky – needless to say I brought mostly cold weather clothes with me – so I’ve been renewing the commercial relationship with Marks & Spencer’s.

I’m missing all the fun at home as well – Mikayla, our oldest alpaca, a brown Auzengate girl, had the last cria of season the day before yesterday, a light fawn female (so we’ve only had three males this year!). Apparently she looks nice but is needing some supplementary feeding. Miranda, who is only just over a month old, gave us cause for concern when I left on Friday. We were just putting my bag in the car when Sarah called me over to look at her – overnight she’d developed a bad case of staggers – a terrible thing to see in a cria, they go downhill so quickly. Thankfully it looks like we caught her in time, dosed her up with vitamin B and it looks like she’s recovering nicely. It’s a busy time of the year, with National Alpaca Week in full flow – not the best time to jump ship for a week.

Still, it’s been good see some of the old haunts – to see what’s changed and what hasn’t and to indulge myself with the camera (and Photoshop in the evening). Here’s a couple from Deal and Walmer taken yesterday...

Although there are only five or six commercial fishing boats winched up onto the beach these days, they still bring in some of the best fish I've ever eaten

See, it isn't just in Australia that you can see miles of deserted coastline...