With it being my last day, I was given the choice of heading up the hill for the early morning feed, or staying at the centre to do jobs down there. I chose to go up the hill, for maximum reindeer time! There was a bit more reindeer juggling to do this morning, as some new calves needed to be chosen to take down to the paddocks to begin their sleigh training. This process involved rounding the herd into a smaller pen, so there wasn't as far for them to run. They seemed a bit unresponsive today, not that keen to come in for the food! Perhaps they've all had a bit too much recently! We managed to get about half the heard into the pen, including most of the calves, but not all the mothers. We needed to get two calves with their mothers, as they haven't yet been separated. After a day or two at the paddocks, the mothers will travel back first, to give the calves a go at being without them. This is why Clouseau and Poirot didn't have their mothers with them when I arrived at the centre.
I was sent into the main enclosure with a bag of food to shake (above photo shows the line following me!), and slowly the reindeer were let out of the small pen (carefully managed by Hen and Andi), until we were left with two mothers and their calves. These were Caddis and her calf Sherlock, and Torch with Morse. The other reindeer were fed, and it was time to lead the chosen ones to Brenda the van for their ride to the centre. While all this was going on, two of the stronger men saw to the unfortunate task of removing Fergus to his final resting place, somewhere lower into the tree line where people don't tend to go. I heard how he was hand reared as an orphan calf, which is apparently why he turned out to be quite forceful as an adult- but also why he was special to many of the herders. He used to go inside the house at the reindeer centre from time to time! Awww.
Caddis and Sherlock being led across the bridge. The calves found it a bit difficult going up the steps to the bridge for the first time, so we had to stand either side of them to push them in the right direction if they slipped sideways!
Reindeer on board!
Even though it only takes a few minutes to travel down the road, the reindeer's halters are taken off for the journey, in case they get in a tangle with their antlers while travelling.
With the new reindeer safely unloaded at the centre, it was time to take the 11am hill tour. It was quite a large group, presumably because it is a Saturday, so two herders plus myself went up. As my last trip with a group, I was challenged to do a section of the talk (scary, but I decided to go for it!)- so I did the first bit. In the car park we explain a bit about what is going to happen, talk about the walk we will do, and the food we will feed the reindeer. When I asked if anyone had a guess at what we might feed the reindeer, one little boy said 'reindeer food', which made everyone laugh! This all went well, and I was even able to stand up to quite a thorough questioning from one of the group as we walked over to the next bit. Yay!
After the talks, the group is free to mill around a bit, feed and take photos of the reindeer.
Can't remember who this is! The ones I can identify tends to be by their antlers, not their noses, hehe!
Matto
The afternoon consisted of more food mixing. Here are the main ingredients; a sheep food mix, barley, sugar beet (I think this smells nice!), and dark grains (leftover from the whisky industry, but not alcoholic!). Hay infused with garlic to ward off ticks is also included.
There was one final trip to the hill to do the last feed of the day. Sargasso is another bull, and we needed to split off one of his females, to put with another of his females (Wapiti) who has been seperated while she recovers from a raised temperature. The herders try not to leave a reindeer on their own where possible, as they prefer to have the company of a herd. I had to lead Sargasso and the others out of their day enclosure by setting out piles of food in a larger enclosure where they spend the night (this saves having to lead a large group of visitors through a field with a bull in the daytime). I was glad that he was distracted by coralling his females, and didn't pay much attention to me. He isn't anywhere near as threatening as Fegus was! The last female to follow out of the smaller enclosure, Lace, was split from the group, and led to join Wapiti.
Back down at the centre, I was allowed to select a mug rom the gift shop as a thank you present, which was a nice treat, and something that shall remind me of my happy adventures with reindeer! I've never done anything quite like this before, and feel certain I've had a truly unique experience, with there being nowhere else in the country that runs a centre quite like this. It's been a real escape into another world for a week, and one I will remember for a long time. I'm going to miss the lovely reindeer! It's not quite over yet though, my lovely boyfriend Tom is coming up to meet me this evening, and tomorrow we shall pay a final visit to the reindeer. He's keen to see all my new friends, and I'm excited to see them one more time too!
Thank you for reading my blog!
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