Shamus the Sheep goes Walkabout - Part 1

Let me introduce myself. My name is Shamus and I am from the Isle of Islay. This is a very small island off the West coast of Scotland. It has a population of about four thousand people and about the same of sheep!

I live on a farm, which looks right over the beach. The sheep in Islay are very fit, we have to be to survive the wind and the rain.

Here is a picture of me taking my morning trot along the beach.

Until a few weeks ago I would have described myself as a very average sheep. My days were spent eating, sleeping and eating more. However the other day the farmer, Hamish McDonald, gathered a few of us into the barn to share some plans he had been busy dreaming up.

He is always trying to think up new ways to improve the farm. He wants it to be the best in Islay and to win all the prizes at the local shows. However this plan is by far the best he has had in years.

He has decided he wants to bring a new breed of sheep onto the farm. An excellent idea we all thought and a chance to make new friends. However these sheep are not coming from the local market or even Glasgow. They are coming all the way from New Zealand. Some of the flock have never been to Edinburgh never mind New Zealand and so Hamish produced a map to show us. Can you spot it? It is so small it is hardly visible!

It would be very expensive to transport a flock of sheep from the other side of the world and so my owner has arranged a sheep swap with his brother who is also a farmer in New Zealand.

Twenty lucky sheep have been picked to go and live on the farm in New Zealand and our farm will be host to twenty Kiwi sheep. (You are called a Kiwi if you are from New Zealand.)

I am very excited to say that I have been one of the lucky sheep chosen as part of the sheep swap and so has my best friend Ewan.

We are leaving next week and Ewan and I have decided to keep a journal so we can share all our adventures with the rest of the flock that are staying back on the farm in Islay.

New Zealand is thousands of miles away from Scotland. To get to Islay from the mainland you need to travel by ferry. Ewan wondered how long it would take the Caledonian MacBrayne's ferry to sail to New Zealand from Islay. (He may be my best friend but he is not the brightest sheep in the flock!) Hamish told us it would take months to sail to New Zealand and that we would be flying there. As it is such a long journey we were all excited to hear that we are having a few stops on the way.

Our first stop is to be New York, California, both in America. We are then flying to Australia and finally on to New Zealand. Have a look to see if you can find these places on a map of your own.

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