Camrose, Alberta, as with so many Canadian towns and cities, does its best to provide its inhabitants and their visitors with miles of trails to walk in summer and ski in winter. The one we most enjoyed when we visited in May 2017 ran south from the city centre along the banks of the Stoney Creek, passing under a fine example of a trestle bridge over which the modern Canadian Pacific railroad still passes.
Downstream from the bridge the trail became increasingly rough and deserted but we were thoroughly enjoying our walk when....
....we started noticing snakes which had been lying sunning themselves on the trail and which, at our approach, rather reluctantly slipped away into the undergrowth.
They were plains garter snakes, a common snake in the area which, while they are poisonous, are harmless to humans.
I write about this today for no reason other than that a picture of the snake came suddenly, and for no good reason, to mind as we walked today in soft Suffolk countryside in which, even after a year of ramblings, we have yet to come across anything more poisonous than a toad.
No comments:
Post a Comment