Walking Llamas at the Llama Park

Disclosure: We were invited on this day out for the purpose of this post however all opinions are my own.

Have you ever walked a llama? No, neither had we until we went to spend the day at the Llama Park in Sussex. Unfortunately for us we had picked a day where the snow came with a vengeance but it didn’t put us off – we wrapped up warm and carried on with our plans.

The Llama Park is in the heart of the Sussex countryside and has been called the jewel of the Ashdown Forest. There is so much parking on site and we were given a lovely warm welcome and directed to the cafe, shop and out to the park.

Before our llama walk we went to meet some of the animals in the park – not just llamas as you may expect, but also pigs, donkeys, chickens, geese, goats and even peacocks. Quite a few were tucked up away from the elements but we still made friends with playful goats, reindeer and pigs.

Although we didn’t spend a huge amount of time at the llama park it’s clear that it’s somewhere you could spend a day, talking to and feeding the animals, walking and exploring and having lunch too. If you book a llama walk you’re able to spend the whole day in the park as admission charges are included in the llama walk fee.

For our llama walk we were given a short briefing about how to handle the llamas and then we were introduced to Arthur and Cluedo, our llamas for the trip. I walked with Little Man and Cluedo and Dave walked with LP and Arthur. The family llama walk was about forty minutes long and just around the grounds of the llama park. But, there are longer walks available that take you out into the forest too.

We led the llamas along – although Cluedo pretty much led us – and stopped at a couple of points to feed them carrots. Our guide was lovely, teaching us about the llamas and pointing out other animals around the grounds. It also took us on a different route than the one we’d taken around the park and so we got to see pretty much the whole of the llama park by the end of our walk.

The children really enjoyed walking the llamas although they were freezing by the end of it. They both said they would have enjoyed it more if it had been spring or summer – but we can’t really pick the weather sadly! It’s something we would love to do again on a sunny day and it’s definitely something different to do on a weekend.

After our walk we went and had tea and cake in the llama park cafe – which had such a fantastic selection of homemade cakes as well as a full lunch menu. The only downside to the cafe was that there wasn’t really anywhere to wipe our feet as we came in and we were very conscious of getting mud everywhere. But, aside from that, the cafe was lovely to relax in and a great place to warm up.

If you’re visiting the llama park I’d advise wearing wellies, whatever the weather. It’s very muddy and I’m sure it would be muddy even in the summer but it’s such a nice place to explore and you can visit without doing a llama walk – but a llama walk would be a lovely bonus!