Attraction on Shropshire and Staffordshire border to take alpaca walks to wider audience
A family rural attraction near Gnosall has teamed up with major experience gifts company to bring its popular alpaca walks to a national audience.
Knightley Alpaca Trekking opened in April 2021, when owners Clare and Oliver Bryan decided to realise their dream of running alpaca walks for a living.
Now the company signed a partnership deal with WonderDays, a national gift experience provider, that puts their animal attraction in front of thousands of potential new customers across the country.
Clare, who runs the alpaca walks with her husband Ollie, said the business had gone from strength to strength over the past 18 months.
“We initially started the trekking experiences on evenings and weekends but it then came to a point where the house made it more viable to give up the day work and work with the alpacas on a full-time basis,” she said.
“Alpacas are such a gentle, calming, relaxing and loving animal. Our favourite things about them are the affection they give and how relaxing it is to work with them.
“The more confident alpacas will give you a kiss and allow bigger and longer cuddles, while some are more shy and take longer to show their feelings.
“They’re all very gentle and walk extremely well with people. They also have a trekking order they tend to stick to and if the correct alpaca is not in front, they’ll all stop.”
Abigail Sadler, partnerships manager for WonderDays, added: "Our partnership with Knightley Alpaca Trekking came about through genuinely local connections, when one of our team spotted a post from them on a neighbourhood Facebook group.
"We loved everything about how they run the business, from their wonderful care of their alpacas to their friendly and down to earth nature when leading the walks with customers.
“It’s obvious how much Clare, Ollie and the whole family genuinely love their animals, which was something that really mattered to us at WonderDays and made us so keen to have them on board with us.”
Clare added: "Joining WonderDays with our new partnership has been very straightforward and we’re looking forward to working with them for many years to come.
“Our hope is to share the experience and our love for our alpacas with a wider audience, showing as many as possible the affectionate and calming nature of these lovely animals that allow you to relax and unwind.”
For more information about WonderDays and Knightley Alpaca Trekking, visit wonderdays.co.uk and search ‘alpaca’.