Friday August 28th, Carmangay Municpal Park, AB

A slower start this morning, the camp seemed very quiet and as we were parked in trees the sun didn’t wake us early.

The country area we have passed through today has been much more productive, mostly cropping and quite a large area of dairy farms later this afternoon. The farms are well tended and show quite a degree of affluence. The size of the fields and the huge machinery that is being used for harvest is absolutely amazing.

With a good forecast for hot weather over the next week, I am guessing that there will be a lot of harvesting done.

We drove down the Canadian Highway 1 and into Medicine Hat, a town with a population of over 60,000 and spent a bit of time looking around. Our first stop was the Canadian Automobile Assoc office, and as members of the NZ AA we get reciprocal rites. We dealt with the friendliest most helpful girl who told us lots about the area, as well as getting maps, travel and accommodation guides….no charge. Great service.

We parked beside the railway in the historical downtown area and wandered around, the little cafes and eating places seem to have taken over most of the shops, and not a lot else was happening. We stopped in a nice little café for lunch.

Checked out the old area where there had been a huge pottery works from the mid 1800’s, but decided not to visit the museum section, the entrance fee seemed to be pretty steep.

Took route 3 through to Taber and found a great truck wash to give Ruakiwi a good scrub…she was covered with squashed crickets and bees as well as a lot of dust. Went online and got emails then decided to head north on a smaller road to Carmangay which we had seen in the accommodation guide as having a small municipal campground.

A nice open spot with power and water…right beside the railway line, so do hope there are not too many trains overnight!