Just when I thought Norfolk couldn’t be any more laid back , I discovered alpaca walking . I am blessed with a sensitive final fourth child. The flip-side being he is a highly strung eleven year old who is a ‘challenge’ to get out of the house never mind partake of the Swallows and Amazon’s idyll I had envisaged for his childhood in Norfolk. But then we met the alpacas.
The slower pace of life in Norfolk can take a bit of getting used to but it’s very good for the soul and for reducing stress levels. A stress head myself, even routine chores needed a gear change in my early days of Norfolk life. The enforced chat with the cashier at the local supermarket, where individual goods are rung in to a pause, chat, resume routine helped to immediately put me in the slow lane of Norfolk living. But just when you think you’ve reached the lowest level of horizontal, try a walk with alpacas. Well ‘walk’ is a misnomer -it’s mostly standing with a few steps thrown in. Alpacas won’t be hurried. But they are charming and very easy to keep apparently. Luckily we only possess a tiny garden or my son’s pleading may have seen me embrace the hippy good life once and for all . But for now I have two incentives for outside life- drone flying and alpaca walking and for now that’s good enough.
Cromer Sea & Sound 