Activities at Sandy Balls in the New Forest - Alpacas

This year was the first time I'd been to the New Forest!  I don't know how I've gone this long and not travelled the 60 miles up the road to visit the ponies, alpacas and woodland, but somehow it had passed me by!!

Having said that, I will definitely be going back again, and probably as soon as next year!

We stayed at the lovely Sandy Balls.  It had been recommended to my by a friend and I'm so glad it was!  There is soo much to do there, you don't really need to leave the complex!  We had morning and afternoon activities, a visit to a neighbouring town, and a Gruffalo Hunt to fit in.

Having a very active 5-year-old it's a good job we had so much planned.  I had mentioned before that my favourite activity over the week was the Falconry and Owl experience, which is a must if you get the chance, but the Alpaca Introduction & Walk is a wonderful experience too.

You can opt for just the introduction or just the walk, but as I wasn't sure what either entailed we booked both.

The Alpaca Introduction at Sandy Balls

The Introduction takes place in the outside pen area.  It lasts half an hour and you get to stroke and walk the alpacas in the pen and learn all about them from the very knowledge staff.  The girl we had was fabulous with the kids and very knowledge about her alpacas.

Walking the Alpacas at Sandy Balls

The walk is an hour-long stroll around the complex.  It would be good to have this activity booked near the beginning of your stay as you then get a feel for the whole complex.  The Alpaca are so well mannered and looked after.  They are so used to going for their walks, they just happily plod along in a group and every now and then veer off to a hedge for a nibble.

Somehow my son kept ending up slap bang in the middle of all 4 of them!  Only he could manage that, and as when we reached Good Friday hill the white, yep white one.... decided to have a dust bath and rolled around for a good 5 minutes, closely followed by the others.   We went up the hill with a white alpaca and came back with a grey one.

This was a lovely experience, and not one that you'd get to do often I'd say.  I'm really pleased that I booked this in advance, as it was fully booked before we arrived at Sandy Balls.

That is one thing I would recommend you do, if you're staying at Sandy Balls, try and book a few of the activities sooner rather than later, as in school holidays, these get booked up quick.