This year, we’ve adopted a lovely reindeer called Bernard from the Cairngorm Reindeer Centre in Scotland. He’ll still be living there of course (there’s no room in the office) but he is now officially part of the family.
We’ve grown so fond of Bernard and his pals that, with your help, we want to adopt more of them. For every 50 people who click our Reindeer Love counter to show their support, we’ll adopt another reindeer, until we have a total of 20 in the BD paddock.
Our donations will go towards their food, healthcare and upkeep for a whole year, so with just one click, you could make a reindeer very happy. And not just for Christmas.
We woke up early this morning and had a hearty breakfast of Scottish porridge and an English cup of tea. After a short taxi ride past the beautiful Loch Morlich, we arrived at Reindeer House, home to the Reindeer People, set beneath an incredible view of the Cairngorm Mountains.
We walked in to the greatest (and only) reindeer gift shop we have ever seen and introduced ourselves to some of the Reindeer People, Peter and Anna, who welcomed us through into the ‘House’ portion of Reindeer House. We had a chat (mainly about reindeer, unsurprisingly) and got to hold one of the antlers of the herd’s most well-endowed reindeer (antler-wise), Crann.
It was GIGANTIC. It weighed 4 kilos and was half as tall as me!
We couldn’t believe that this thing was actually attached to an animal’s head. Along with another one! Peter informed us that Crann had cast it that very morning and the other antler was still on his head, meaning he was now lying down resting his totally unbalanced head on the ground. We had to stifle a laugh at this point because it gave us a very funny mental image.
We then made our way outside to the paddock where they alternate a few reindeer from the mountains so visitors to the Centre can see them. There’s also a hut filled with fun reindeer stuff such as drawings, poems and stories sent in by adopters, a few reindeer bedrooms (complete with tiny bunk beds for the calves!) and Santa’s sleigh.
When it was nearly 11 a.m., we went back to the gift shop and met the others who had turned up for the mountain visit. After a short drive in Peter’s van, we trekked a short distance up the mountain, trying not to get blown over by the freezing wind, until we reached the reindeer.
There are approximately 150 in the herd but they tend to spread themselves out over the mountains so the group that greeted us numbered between 30 and 40. They were very friendly and certainly not shy; the herders gave everyone handfuls of food to feed them and it was basically a free-for-all.
Anna explained how reindeer have an excellent awareness of where there antlers are despite not being able to see them so there were no accidental gorings, except for a feisty male called Magnus pronging Dave in the buttocks.
We braved the cold and took our gloves off long enough to stroke them (the reindeer, not Dave’s buttocks) and take some photos and movies (which we’re going to put together into a video diary so check back soon to watch it).
After an hour or so, we returned to Reindeer House to warm up with a cup of tea and buy our colleagues amusing gifts. We also interviewed Tilly Smith, the herd owner, who was really nice and obviously incredibly passionate about the reindeer.
We then said our goodbyes and went back to Mackenzies Inn, where we are now sitting, soon to go to sleep before our long and arduous journey back to London tomorrow.
This trip has been an amazing experience, we’ve loved every minute of it. We’re already planning to travel up again sometime to volunteer, maybe early next summer so we can see the new-born calves!
We hope this blog will inspire you to take a trip up to beautiful Aviemore to meet the reindeer, it’s totally worth it. And while you’re at it, why not adopt one yourself?
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