Just a dot in the middle of the prairie

I wanted to share these fantastic photos with you. My colleague Neil Carter has recently acquired his private pilot's license and last night he flew over Ralston and took some photos of the village.

If you click on them, you can see them full-size.

The photo on the left really puts into perspective just how isolated we are here in the middle of the prairie. There's pretty much nothing to the east of us.


In the first photo our house is on the far bottom right of the village. In the second photo (right) our house is the last one on the corner of the village with the grey roof. You can see a footpath running down the centre of our garden and our gazebo in the garden. If you enlarge it, you can even see the RV in our parking spot!

The trees which grow in abundance in the village, survive the bitter winters and arid summers only because they are watered by an underground irrigation system. The vegetation on the prairie is a mixture of grass, cacti and other semi-arid vegetation.

The third photo (left) is of the world's longest motorway - the Trans-Canada highway, which is about 3km from Ralston village and is our only route to the nearest city of Calgary and therefore forms part of our incredibly dull two and a half hour commute to Calgary airport.

It all looks rather desolate from the air, but fortunately we are less aware of our isolation on the ground!

To see more of Neil's photos, click here