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Tobermory! Not the womble who is second-in-command to Great Uncle Bulgaria, nor the pretty Scottish town in Oban, but Tobermory in Ontario, Canada; on the tip of the Bruce Peninsular, just 257 kilometres from Toronto but light years away, 4 degrees, “real feel” 1 degree according to Google! We decided to take the lesser-known route to get to the Trans-Canada Highway where we are heading, by coming up “The Bruce”, then taking a ferry across to Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron, which we shall do tomorrow. We are unusual visitors here; most are fishermen and hunters and also it is still winter!
We collected our Nissan rental car from Toronto airport yesterday and five hours later, having stopped for lunch en route, we arrived at the Tobermory Village Campground, which was more or less under water due to a violent torrential storm the night before. Needless to say, we are not camping as planned, we are in a nice cosy little motel down by the pretty harbour. Folk here are really friendly, we got our washing done for just 4 $ Canadian and we are enjoying the scenery and strolling around this little village,
even although it is bitterly cold. At midday today the temperature
rose to 4 degrees and is now dropping again. The ferry master said it might snow later!!!
For lunch today we ate our best meal so far in Canada. The board outside the little harbour restaurant (in the same family hands since it was opened in 1932) said today’s special was “Whitefish”. We asked what white fish it was: we were simply told that it was Georgian Bay Whitefish (Georgian Bay is the bay to the east of Tobermory on Lake Huron)! Well, I don’t like many freshwater fish, apart from trout and salmon, so I was a bit dubious but thought, well, it is freshly caught, it is local cuisine, so let’s go for it. Well, Georgian Bay Whitefish are delicious! We followed the fish with home-made Blueberry Pie and home-made ice cream! OMG! Forget the diet! Just have to hike about a lot more!
Lake Huron is so wide that the sun sets on the horizon of its western shore. Unfortunately, we are not likely to see much of a sunset today! The US/Canadian border runs through the middle of the lake. Tobermory
sits at the very tip of the Bruce Peninsular, beyond it is just water and Manitoulin Island, which means “Spirit Island” in the Ojibwe language. According to Lonely Planet, a few days on Manitoulin Island is “food for the soul” so we are looking forward to doing little but chill (and the temperatures promise chilly chill)!
Tomorrow we shall cross over to Manitoulin. Right now, the lake has turned very choppy, its rich blue and green hues are now grey with white caps and it looks most inhospitable. We have booked the afternoon car ferry and we are hoping the weather is a bit brighter tomorrow so that we can enjoy the two-hour trip. Then when we disembark, we shall need to look for somewhere to stay. There are lots of campsites but it is probably still too cold to pitch our little tent. We shall see!
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Barbara Collins
non-member comment
Keep warm
Hi Viv and John What an unusual part of Canada. I had to look it up to see where you are. Hope you put socks on for the next day Viv. It all looks quite remote but great to see. Hope you enjoy every day. Love Barb and Dave xx