Dear clients,
Please note: Our summer walk calendar is now fully booked. The calendar has no free spaces between now and the end of October.The winter calendar for walks between November and March should be available from the end of September.
We are delighted to announce that, following the easing of restrictions relating to COVID-19, we are now able to look forward to restarting our walking visits with the alpacas from Friday 31st July.
We have put a lot of effort into ensuring that we can offer these activities while keeping all our clients, ourselves, (and not forgetting our four-legged friends) safe and well.
The current guidelines from government suggest that our type of activity can resume with some conditions and restrictions compared to our previous “normal” routine.
- 1) Booking Numbers.
For the foreseeable future we will have to reduce the number of groups of people (families or friends) on our walks, so we are minimising your contact with multiple other groups of people.
How will we do this?
By not accepting bookings from individuals or twosomes walking 1 alpaca.
We will allow groups of 2 or more people to book, but they must book at least 2 alpacas to walk. Scottish Government Phase 3 (current phase) of recovery stipulates a maximum of 15 people on each outdoor meeting activity (and that includes us as the activity leaders).
Accordingly, if you intend to exceed the 1 person: 1 alpaca ratio during phase 3, we request that you contact us first to ensure that the group size is appropriate before booking.
- 2) Hand Washing.
We have put in place a significant number of hand washing stations and a regime aimed at reducing the probability of virus transmission.
We will encourage visitors to wash their hands on arrival and use sanitiser gel before handling either the alpaca or the lead ropes.
The lead ropes will have been disinfected prior to the activity.
After the activity, visitors will be encouraged to utilise the hand washing and sanitising facilities again.
- 3) Toilets.
On site, there is a single cubical with a chemical-style camping toilet.
It is not feasible to provide the required cleaning and disinfection of this facility between each and every client’s use of the facility in order to render it safe. Accordingly, while the risk of COVID-19 infection has not reached Phase 4 of recovery (as defined by Scottish Government), the toilet facility will remain closed.
We realise that lack of toilet may be inconvenient to some customers and we would recommend that individuals in this situation should defer their visit until a later date.
- 4) Contact Track & Trace.
We are required to record the names and contact information of visitors on each walk for the purposes of track & trace in the event of an infection. We will use the booking information provided by you on the calendar (Name, contact telephone, and email address).
- 5) Face Coverings (masks).
In an activity of this type outdoors, face masks are not compulsory as long as appropriate social distance rule are adhered to.
However, we are mindful that some handlers may be inexperienced and may require assistance. If this happens we will wear a mask before we assist.
Also, our alpacas are oblivious to these rules and may, from time to time, move close to another alpaca and handler. If this involves someone external to your family/friends group, then we would recommend that you also cover your mouth and nose.
If you are more comfortable wearing a mask at all times, then that will be equally acceptable.
- 6) Booked Visits Only.
While we remain in phase 3, we cannot permit drop-in visits from members of the public. All visits must be booked / arranged in advance. To protect our booked visitors, we will display notices to this effect at our entrance gates.
With these restrictions in place, we are ready to welcome you to our activities and our booking calendar is now available once again.
Kind regards,
BobCat Alpacas
