Sunday 15 November 2009

A washout

Yesterday saw some of the worst weather of the year down here in the South West, torrential, horizontal rain all day and all night. A bit like living in Scotland for the day I suppose!
Trees down everywhere and any leaves that were hanging on have been reminded that the wind is in charge. The alpacas seemed hardly to notice and just carried on regardless, heads down munching.
As a result I was forced to stay inside all afternoon and watch rugby. Such a shame.

Van Diemen Qjori has started his mammoth quest having arrived at EP Cambridge, north of Adelaide, to begin his first 30 days of quarantine.

Ben was tasked with getting him there and they were both on the ferry from Tasmania to Melbourne on Tuesday of this week. Once on the mainland Ben set off on the 7 hour road trip to EPC. Sadly the van broke down a couple of hours short, radiator trouble, well it was 43 degrees C so hardly surprising. Fortunately EPC sent someone out to collect Qjori and poor old Ben had a long hot wait to get the van fixed. We owe Ben and EPC a huge thank you.

So Qjori has now joined a large group of alpacas at EPC for a 30 day quarantine period. After that they will all fly to a further quarantine station in New Zealand where they will stay for 6 months.
After that they will fly here to the UK and then our boy will come home. That is of course providing he passes the BAS screening. He has been 'pre-screened' and so there should be no problem, but you just never know! He's also been 'vet checked' so that we can insure him straight away.

It's a complicated and drawn out process but it will be worth it in the end. All being well he should be here in June, just in time to say 'Hello' and 'Ding Dong' to a few of our lovely ladies.

3 comments:

Amiryck said...

Oops shouldn't have said anything about Ben - maybe I was tempting fate! Glad he got there safely though.

Liking the new look blog as well!!!

Zanzibah Alpacas said...

Sounds like an epic journey..to England ....!! Hope all goes well.

I thought you soft southern lot didn't get rain....a bit of a reminder that even the rain goes south !!...We have had a lovely DRY weekend.....they say the sun shines on the righteous.. !! up here in Sunny Scotland......Jayne

Lucy said...

We have a dryish climate here I'll have you know!!! Yes it does get cold in winter but that's ok. Glad Qjory is on his way now.