It's raining !

Monday 29th April

It's a good start, breakfast and a look outside, it's not raining. It was raining for the last hour of the journey and quite misty, now in daylight without the rain, the scenery was stunning. The grass is very long and green and the mountain range behind us with the snow capped peeks, we have nothing like this at home, the grass or the views! We are led down to where the alpacas are being kept, in a "poly tunnel" like structure, slightly damp but not wet. Then we are shown the shearing shed, a part finished structure that will be home for the alpacas and a fruit and veg business when complete, we will have to bring the alpacas about 100 metres through a building site and are told that only some of them are halter trained. We set up and clear a holding area for the alpacas, then it's off to fetch the first group of females and crias. It's now raining, we get halters on everybody and start to make our way back to the shearing area, then the two males break out and are running the fence line getting wet. The first job is to get the girls under cover and shear them, Claudio and Annalisa are left to put the males away. Shearing in front of an audience is sometimes a bit of a trial, here we have builders, family, friends, someone with a camera, and the local vet. First alpaca sheared, vet steps in to show how to inject and drench, Jon has trimmed toenails and she is released. After a couple the vet leaves and Claudio takes over, the girls and cria are all sheared and taken back. Now for the soggy boys, they not very wet, but I suggested that the fleece is taken out of the bags to dry before storing. All completed, 99 sheared in 8 days, 9 locations and 1200km travelled.
    Back to the chalet, shower and over to Claudio's home to meet their children, have some tiramisu and talk alpacas. After a lovely meal we are taken to the airport for the flight back to Bristol. The scenery is magnificent, tall mountains all around with snow on the peaks and tunnels that go for miles through them.
 
Arrivederci Italia - rivedervi il prossimo anno.