Alpacas and Kimchi - Cumbria, UK
As always, in typical brown-family tradition, we planned in advance yet still managed to choose the only wet weekend in months during the ‘British heatwave’ for our day out
Luckily we didn’t let the rain stop us and headed up to spend the day with some furry faces with a quick detour for food on the way.
My mum saw that Cumbria Vegan Festival was on so we headed to Carlisle for some scran first
We arrived around 1pm and to our dismay (also delight), many hungry vegans had been before us and the stalls were left looking a bit sparse! We were disappointed not to be able to take Home a bottle of Besos de Chocolaté (Spanish brandy with tigernut milk) however the samples left us happy enough to wait until we can order some online
I’ve seen @lovekimchiuk a couple of times recently at events but hadn’t yet had chance to try it. I wasn’t too sure what I fancied but they had a deal for £10 were you got a mix of katsu curry, kimchi fried rice, gochujang bulgogi, mandu and kimchi
It was absolutely delicious, packed full of chillis and interesting new flavours I definitely got on board with. I will for sure be keeping an eye out for them again in future
Unfortunately a little bistro we found didn’t offer any plant-based milks so we waited until we were in Cockermouth for a tea break. I’m trying to reduce my caffeine intake but this vanilla soya flat white (which seemed more of a cappuccino to me..) went down a treat and was devoured in minutes.
Then it was time for the main event of the day - meeting and feeding a herd of Alpacas!
It’s crazy to believe but the majority of the gang were originally unwanted and have been rescued by nice folk at @alpacalyeverafter
We were even lucky enough to see tiny 1 and 2 day old babies that were absolutely adorable and all the older members of the herd all greeted them with kisses!
Although some were literally fresh out the womb I believe the oldest alpaca in the herd was 17 years old and they have a longer life expectancy here in the UK as opposed to their native home in Peru.
Those born with blue eyes tend to be blind but as alpacas are a herd animal they walk together which helps the blind alpaca not fall by the wayside
They were ridiculously soft and let us stroke their necks which I imagine it felt like how rolling around on a giant cloud would feel like
They even fed out of our hands and had soft mouths like horses but with less teeth! Alpacas have no top teeth therefore cannot bite through an apple or anything tougher so they really tickled as they ate. I had a lovely day and it was amazing being with animals out in the open who are not being trapped/forced to do anything that they don’t want to do. Until next time xo
