A Small Alberta Town

One of the things I came very much to like in my visits to Alberta were its small towns. A typical example is Camrose, which we visited during our holiday in 2017. We stayed in a modern, rather characterless hotel in the new part of town, where space for extensive development seems never a problem - except for whoever has to cut the grass.

Although practically no-one else does it, we walk round Canadian towns, which gives us a good feel for the place, and Camrose seemed to exude the sense of confidence, of comfort and pride, that is so typical of Canada.

Despite this, we probably wouldn't have enjoyed the town as much had we not walked down to the river where, as in so many towns and cities in Alberta, there are miles of pedestrian and cycling tracks, picnic and barbecue sites, and playing fields. Camrose, like many of those other Alberta towns, sits on a crossing point of a river, and its importance derives from a major road, now Highway 13, and....

....the Canadian Pacific Railway whose tracks, almost unbelievably, still cross the Stoney Creek by this magnificent trestle bridge.

Like so many things in Canada, nothing seems to happen in any great hurry in Camrose, so when we had the good fortune to be near the tracks as....

....one of the huge freight trains came through - over 100 wagons is far from unusual - it was going so slowly that the engineer - as the driver is called in Canada - had plenty of time to give us a wave and a cheerful smile.

I also remember Camrose for its wildlife. When the paved paths ran out as we walked up the Stoney Creek valley the surroundings became sufficiently wild for garter snakes to feel at home, raptors soared above us, the birdlife was enviable, and we saw deer which seemed very much at home in the town itself.

When I visit a place like Camrose I ask myself the question, "Could I have lived here and been content?" For Camrose, the answer is a definite, 'Yes', but I would have wanted to have lived there for most if not all my life and never have known anything else; that way I would have been an integral part of the slow and perhaps slightly unimaginative peace of the place. But.... it would have meant missing out on all the interesting places where I've lived and worked.