Photo Blog: January 2024

January has seen the last few Hill Trips of the Christmas holidays and then the start of our closed period where we can crack on with various office and maintenance jobs such as repairing holes in our waterproof kit (thanks Lotti for keeping us dry!) and oiling the Christmas harness ready to be stored for the next 10 months.

The entire reindeer herd roams freely in the hills at this time of year over two locations. Tilly looks after one group, and we look after the herd here which wander the Cairngorms. We tend to visit them every other day (when the weather allows) to check on our wonderful furry friends. Of course, they’re totally fine and are in their element over the winter months but they won’t turn down a free meal. I think it’s mostly for the herders benefit that we go up and see them else we’d all probably go a bit mad without our reindeer fix.

The HUGE thing which is also going on this January is the exhibition has been demolished so it’s been all hands on deck, taking things down, sorting and storing things to be kept, cutting trees, clearing brash, ripping up boardwalks, loading trailers etc. Here’s a selection of photos from what has turned out to be a rather action packed ‘quiet’ season! We look forward to reopening the shop and taking Hill Trips from Saturday the 10th of February.

2nd of January: A wonderful day for a Hill Trip.
3rd of January: 15 year old Ibex leading the free ranging herd.
5th of January: Cassie overseeing the feeding of the calves.
10th of January: The herd emerging from the mist on a beautiful atmospheric day. Merida at the front.
10th of January: Pavlova with one of the biggest sets of antlers this winter.
11th of January: Snoozy Orinoco and mum Pinto.
13th of January: Ben leading the herd in for a free lunch. Pinto and Orinoco at the front!
14th of January: Lace and her son Limpopo in the snow. Lace is a strong leader, and tends to be at the front of the free ranging herd as they come to our call.
14th of January: Sisters in the snow! Danube and her older sister Sorbet. Their mum Brie was just next to them too, but I missed the full family portrait.
19th of January: Herd on the move! Pinto and Orinoco, Lace and Limpopo and Hopscotch lead the charge.
22nd of January: We left the reindeer to it today, which meant we spent the morning clearing the chaos in the paddocks after the demolition of the exhibition. Here’s Lotti, Andi and Lisette hard at work.
24th of January: Amy leading the free ranging herd.
24th of January: Colin and Cameron on the site of our old exhibition. The Arctic Shed is the only part currently still standing.

Ruth

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