In 1982 I was serving
in the Falklands flying helicopters for a commando squadron. When
my period of service ended, I decided that I wanted a complete
change of lifestyle, something that would offer rather more peace,
tranquillity and inner contentment. With my girlfriend, Jo, I went
on a llama-trekking holiday in the Arizona mountains.
Together, Jo and I
decided that this would be the ideal life for us, and when we
returned to England we began to look into buying some llamas and
starting a trekking business in the UK. While searching the web, I
came across Roseland Llamas (Llamas in the UK),
which turned out to be a fantastic llama resource.
We went to meet
the owners of Roseland Llamas, who helped us to put together our
first group of four animals — Angus, Hamish, Charlie and Denis,
named after Denis Healey, the former Labour chancellor, because of
his amazing eyebrows.
Each animal costs
£750. Since then we have added another llama from Roseland, Kuzco,
who was chosen by Walt Disney to promote the video of its cartoon
film The Emperor’s New Groove. Now we run a llama-trekking and
husbandry centre near Beaminster, in Dorset, and trek along the
World Heritage-designated Dorset coastline.
