Allison and I plus Cath and Marty hit the road in our hire car to Tobermory on the Bruce Penninsula which is about 4 hours drive north of Toronto.
Cruise past Sauble Beach on the edge of Lake Huron. We continue up the coast of the lake until we arrive at our destination for the night in an Indian teepee. Pretty cool experience. Animal skins as sleeping mats etc. We head into the town of Tobermory which is centered around the Marina. Grab a fish and chips lunch overlooking the bay.
We head to do some snorkelling at a nearby beach. The water is absolutely freezing. With no wetsuit we brave the waters for a short while as there is a decent shipwreck just below us in about 20m of water. Because of the fresh water it is well preserved and the water is crystal clear so it is worth braving the cold. But it is biting cold and only 10 minutes passes before we are blue and shivering so quickly seek a towel to wrap around us.
A little unprepared for camping we make do with a rough BBQ using various natural implements and aluminium foil as plates. Turned out OK and the fire is good to have beside our teepee. Fellow campers have some tunes running which is pretty good. We tuck into bed on our animal skin beds and sleeping bags. Looking up to the teepee roof noticing that the canvas did not run up and cover the peak of the teepee strangely. What if it rained?
Awake in the middle of the night to torrential rain. The centre of the floor is drenched so we shuffle ourselves and our gear to the sides. Recovered somewhat before the mosquito’s ate us alive! Then Marty had some paranoid thought there was a bear outside our tent but we think he was just dreaming…
We wake after not much sleep and head back to the marina in town for a ferry to Flowerpot Island. So named by the rock formations you could argue look like flowerpots. We walk the length of the Island to the lighthouse and back to the jetty for the return journey on a glass bottomed boat where we can see the same sunken ship we saw a day earlier without the discomfort of the freezing water.
Flowerpot Island
We hit the road back to Toronto taking a scenic route through many farms and big old sheds you only see in the movies (unless you’re from around these parts, then you just see them everywhere obviously).
About The Author
Warren
Ever since venturing out the back gate into the bush as a kid, I've had a curiosity to escape and explore as often as I could. It's fair to say that my curiosity has continued to grow instead of fade as the years go on. It eventually came time to turn a few scribbled notes into some legible stories and travel tips for anyone with a similar curiosity as me.