Llanberis

Whilst in Llanberis to join my father on his pilgrimage to climb Snowdon, I knew that the town reminded me of another place, but I could not work out where it was. Not Britain, not Europe.

It wasn't so much the appearance of the town that was giving me deja-vu, so much as its feel, an atmosphere. It used to be an industrial town, with slate quarries and railways and Victorian tourism. Now all that's left is the tourism, with visitors coming here for just a day or two so the shops are closing, and the restaurants have to make a living on two or three days' business a week, mainly in summer. The local youths seem aimless, yet there are plenty of incomers who have arrived for the mountain sports which are based here.

Then I realised where Llanberis reminded me of: Tofino on Vancouver Island, 300km north of Victoria, at the back-end of nowhere. Both towns have an industrial past (Tofino's was in fishing and processing whale-meat) and yet both are now totally dependent upon tourism for income. Both are water-side towns as well, although llanberis lake does not compare with Tofino's outlook onto the north Pacific Ocean. And in some ways there is irony in their tourism; Llanberis was built by the slate quarries that destroyed huge chunks of mountain and now all the visitors are here to climb those mountains, Tofino's visitors are there to watch the whales that its early inhabitants did their best to eradicate.

And, let's face it, I don't really want to return to either of those little sad towns.