We made it without encountering a gale. The alpacas, as usual, caused great excitement on the boat with lots of crew members coming to have a look. As we has suris and huacayas on board and a black one they got a short lecture on the different fleece types and colours. Dinner was good and after half a bottle of wine each we easily fell asleep. We had one of the superior cabins with sliding doors that open on to a balcony so plenty of fresh air and breakfast brought to you in the morning too.
Unusually for Roscoff there was passport control for some people although we were waved through without stopping. I don’t think we have ever seen customs or passport control before when we have arrived in France, a bit different when you are leaving. Perhaps they needed the overtime. We tipped up at Robin and Linda’s house to consume the first of many, many cups of tea before having a look at their animals who love, really love apples. Robin tipped a whole lot on to the ground and they were gone within minutes. Linda hand spins and weaves and had some beautiful things to show us that she has made. It is knitting next as she’s bought a knitting machine and I took over a couple of cones of UK Alpaca Single 12s and 2/12s for her to try. Then it was off to lunch with them and Enid Anderson and her husband at the local restaurant where there was much discussion of the merits of setting up an alpaca registry in France and perhaps a screening programme for imports. Unfortunately there are quite a few breed societies in France so politically the industry is somewhat fractured, not easy to get breed societies to come together as we know from our experiences here in Britain.
Later that evening we loaded up our stud male Benleigh Talisman and set off for the joys of wine buying at Red Cash. We spent Talisman’s breeding fees (not all of it) on wine so that we wouldn’t have to exchange any money at a pretty awful rate. When we got to Roscoff there was a howling gale and sheets of rain. The back of me got soaked getting to the freight office and the front of me similarly on the way back to the car. The douane came and had a look in the trailer, first question, will he spit? Of course not, we cried, he is very civilised. I was worried that it would be rough. We were having dinner when the boat set off but again it was just a big swell and not bad at all, phew.