Last year one of my dreams came true when I welcomed the wolves to my home county, when we had a stall at the Kent County Show. We returned in March for the Spiritual Tides festival and the difference between the two was night and day: the Show was packed, dusty and hot whereas the Festival was deserted, wet and windy. We'd been invited back to the Kent Show this year and I was intrigued to see what the weather would have in store this time!

As it turns out, July was a record breaking month for heat. Thankfully on the 13th, when the wolves, the cage and the crew made the trip to Kent it was in a relatively cool spell - temperatures in Berkshire were in the low 20s and high atop the Downs it was barely 20C, with a light northerly wind. Last year we ended up putting the cage up in the dusk, but this year things started earlier and the cage was up by late afternoon. Duma and Dakota were our ambassadors once again and as the evening approached they were taken for a quick walk to stretch their legs. I'd purchased some Sheppey lamb chops as a special treat for them, but Dakota turned her nose up at the succulent meat. Duma had no such qualms though and promptly scoffed both chops.

Friday the 14th dawned cloudy and cool, with a strong northeasterly wind blasting in from the North Sea. As this satellite picture shows, the rest of the UK was bathed in hot sunshine - not that I was too bothered.

I arrived around 7 in the morning and to my delight was able to accompany the wolves on their morning walk.

Dakota in the woods 

I was offered the chance to handle Dakota and grasping the opportunity I lead her along the home stretch to the enclosure. My job was made trickier by the route we chose, straight along the main path past the Scouts stalls! The reaction from some of the Scouts themselves was priceless, reminding me of the lines from Walking in the Air - "Children gaze open mouthed, taken by suprise - nobody down below believes their eyes"

Dakota decided she wasn't too keen on a giant black cut-out of a disco dancer (complete with flashing traffic lights), but she was reassured by us lot and after a suspicious look she carried on back to the cage.

At the cage - Dakota takes a keen interest in a tree.

We then rallied around to set up the stall and get things ready for our visitors. Despite the strong wind whistling through the trees and the cloudy skies attendance was up on last year, with clouds of dust once again billowing along the main pathway. In the quieter periods my friends from the Trust decided to tease me about the weather, moreso after I mentioned that in Berkshire temperatures would be in the mid 20s with strong sunshine. They'd decided that Kent must be part of France because of the French stalls, the Tour de France being partially held in Kent and the different weather compared with their home area. Undaunted, I promptly informed them that this was a typical sea breeze and it's what happens when you're close to the coast. The amusing thing is they swallowed it hook, line and sinker - in reality, the wind was due to a large Scandinavian High and a tight pressure gradient causing howling winds and dragging in copious clouds from the North Sea.

Later in the day when I was manning the perimeter of the cage, chatting to the public, I spotted a group of people with a TV camera. They spotted me, too, and introduced themselves as being from the BBC. I recognised Ian Palmer, the local reporter, and steered them towards one of our senior handlers. Needless to say within a few minutes they were inside the cage, filming our wolves. That night the footage was broadcast across Kent and East Sussex - and from chatting to people over the weekend we had visitors turn up to the Kent Show purely because they'd seen the wolves on TV! The day was rounded off by a flying visit to my "local", the place I used to go each Sunday before I started volunteering at the Trust.

One of our seniors, Rich, gives an interview whilst Duma gets her head stroked. Spot the typo!

Saturday and Sunday were much busier days, as you'd expect, with numbers again well up on last year. Indeed, a few times when I went off for a snack or to have a wander I ended up doing the "penguin march", such was the volume of people. Duma and Dakota were superb, with several hours of "meet and greets" taking place on each of the days. Thanks to their efforts we raised a couple of hundred pounds in donations, as well as making a couple of hundred people happy (and showing wolves in a positive light too).

A typical view - note the large numbers of people queueing to get in.

An interesting thing occured during one of the meet and greets with Dakota. I was acting as the back up, idly stroking her while chatting to the public (and making sure they didn't do anything daft). Dakota's paws started twitching, a sure sign she was asleep and dreaming (note: not having an epileptic fit as some people assumed last year when they saw her twitching!) After a few minutes her legs started moving as well, with the movements becoming increasingly jerky. Not long afterwards the movement in her paws and legs stopped, while her mouth started moving instead. She then suddently shot bolt upright and that was the end of that particular meet and greet session! It's unscientific in the extreme, but we were all pretty sure she was chasing something in her dreams, caught it then in the middle of eating it woke up.

 However, at the end of the day the wolves were able to put their jaws to use for real, with some meaty treats.

As usual, we had people commenting that the wolves were dead / ill / tranquilised / stuffed, as they weren't especially active. Nothing unusual there (both from the wolves and the public) and most people accepted our explainations that the wolves are predators and were just doing what they would in the wild, in the heat of the day. If only the nay-sayers were around when the wolves were having their treats, as they're certainly active then!

Sunday came around all too quickly and back home some thick fog had blown in from the sea, creating an eerie and still atmosphere. Heading inland it quickly dissipated, that is until I ascended Detling Hill, where initially grey skies gave way to thick fog - as in March, I was literally in the clouds! The fog thinned into mist by the time I parked up and made my way to the wolves, although it lingered as we took the girls for their morning walk.

I've come to learn that summer mist means a hot day and it was certainly true on that Sunday, with largely clear skies, just a gentle NE'ly (a proper sea breeze) and hot sunshine. Temperatures reached 25C on the Downs, over 30C in Reading back at the farm. The wolves were as good as ever though and spent much of the day resting.

As with last year the Sunday passed in a blur and before I knew it ithe wolves were put back in their trailer and we started dismantling the cage and packing up. Even with 10 or so people it still takes a couple of hours, but before too long all that was left was a lot of yellowed grass to show where the wolves and the cage had been...

All in all, another great show and although it's unlikely we'll return (as we're booked for a small flower festival during the Kent Show next year), you never know...

Now for a quick update on the pups! They're now 3 and a half months old and full of beans. Just yesterday I was in their enclosure and ended up getting covered in muddy pawprints and wolf drool. Pups in the wild will lick at the muzzles of the adults to get them to regurgitate food - and although that doesn't work on us the pups are very keen to try! We're now taking them out on walks to get them used to leads and it's interesting to note that the "pull" of the pups is very similar to the fully grown wolves, which shows just how much force the adults could exert if they wanted to...

Anyway, three pics. First up is Torak, our cross-breed male, followed by Mosi. Then there's a photo of one of our volunteers getting "wolfed" by Torak - exactly as happened to me yesterday. Trouble is, when it happens to you the last thing you can do is take a photo!

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