Sonya's Blog - Day 42 - Exploring Bruce Peninsula

Sonya’s Blog - Day 42 - August 3rd - Touring the Bruce Peninsula

Today we thought we would tour around the Bruce Peninsula all the way to the tip and the town of Tobermory. On one side of the Peninsula is Georgian Bay and on the other Lake Huron. We ended up leaving a little late because we had quite a few neighbours come over and chat with us about the maps on the side of our RV and because we are from Alberta and there are not a lot of Alberta plates driving around these parts. We finally got on the road and our first stop was going to be Lion’s Head, which is on the Georgian Bay side. It was about an hours drive from our campsite. Lion’s Head is a lovely little town, and it has some amazing cliffs on one side. One of the cliff faces is supposed to look like a lion’s head, hence the name, but we couldn’t see the head, can you?

We walked along the path to check out the beach and the town a little bit. It is not very big, maybe a dozen businesses or so, so it didn’t take long. We came back to rocky beach, because Kizmet could be on that one and played around there for a bit. The water was much calmer on the Georgian Bay side and there was no wind, so the water was nice. It also wasn’t nearly as busy as Sauble Beach.

We continued to head up the Peninsula after leaving Lion’s Head, there were a few more towns along the way, but they were all really small so we just continued on our way to Tobermory. We entered Bruce Peninsula National Park about 10 minutes from the town of Tobermory. It will be interesting to see how many National Parks we visit on our tour. The town of Tobermory was quite a bit larger and much busier than any of the towns we had visited today. It seems like there are only 3 major centre’s on the Peninsula, Sauble Beach, Wiarton and Tobermory. Everything else is tiny. Tobermory was nice and the main area was built around the bay and marina. We walked around and visited some shops. Isaac really wanted to visit the sweet shop and Natasha wanted to check out some of the clothing shops. We also headed over to the main part of the marina and walked up and down that checking out the yachts.

Tobermory:

Up close and personal with a pirate in Tobermory:

We wanted to drive down the Lake Huron side on the way back and it looked like we would be able to do this most of the way, but all the roads are not paved. There is really only one highway up and down the Peninsula and it goes right through the centre, which is unfortunate that you cannot go along the coast. We wanted to see Red Bay because it is supposed to have red sand beaches. We turned at the right sign, but somehow ended up in Oliphant instead, which is just south of Red Bay. We were able to drive along the coast at this point until we reached Sauble Beach. Natasha didn’t get a chance to check out the shops in Sauble Beach yesterday, so we thought we would stop and have supper and she could check a few out. It started pouring rain as soon a we got there, but it only lasted about 15 minutes. Natasha and I walked along the main road and Blake, Isaac and Kizmet headed down to the beach. Natasha did not find what she was looking for and after a bit we headed down to the beach as well. It was sunny by this time, but later in the day and quite windy. I found it too cool on the beach, but Natasha and Isaac went in and had a swim.

I headed back up and go the truck, which I really should not be doing since I still don’t have my license. The swim ended up not being the best idea because we had forgotten the beach towels at the trailer. The kids were soaked so we decided to just head back to the RV and rustle up something to eat there. It was quite late when we got back, but we managed to get some supper and both the kids were wiped so they went to bed right away. Blake and I still had a few things to do, but we won’t be staying up too late either.

We pack up tomorrow and move to Toronto. Our campground is in Brampton, but I guess it is not too far to get to downtown Toronto from where we are staying. We would like to be out by 9 AM to make sure we are into the campground well before rush hour hour. It is only a 2 hour drive so lets hope everything goes smoothly.

Sonya