We camped last night just at the entrance to a hiking route in Bruce National Park. The ground was soft and flat, but the night was cold. The weather we checked in Owen sound for Tobermory said that it would drop to around freezing. Geoff and I were a bit chilly in our +5 and +7 sleeping bags, while Martin complained of being sweaty in his -7.
Our plan was to wake up at a quarter past six to give ourselves plenty of time to make the 8:50 ferry. Unfortunately, I didn't hear my alarm from inside my sleeping bag, so we slept in until seven. Seven is starting to feel like a reasonable time to be awake now that our sense of time is adjusting to the Sun. Being cozy in our tents, we debated sleeping some more and catching the afternoon's ferry. In the end we bit the bullet and made the ferry with 10 minutes to spare. Tobermory turned out to be very close to where we had stayed, about 6km.
There were about eight lineups of vehicles to get on the ferry. We were in the third lane along with the motorcycles. They let our lane on first, and so we were also the first to get off. The ferry ride was very nice. We passed many small islands while our toes thawed. There was a food area where we had a nice hot breakfast. The ride was about two hours long.
The island is beatiful. It's full of rolling hills, forests and pastures. We were a bit nervous because there is only one real road that goes through the island, but it turned out to not be a problem at all. We stopped in ] to buy some groceries for lunch and dinner. People have a tendancy to come up and talk to us while we're outside of grocery stores. One lady, Kendra we found out, talked a while. She recommended a spot for lunch, as well as a place to spend the night. We obeyed both instructions.
The first was to stop at 10 Mile Point. It's called this because it's almost exactly 10 miles from both Little Current and ]. It was remarkable indeed; a steep drop of a couple hundered feet into the bay. We could see a clear outline of Strawberry Island, and it agreed with the shape on the map. There was also a historical plaque which I liked.
Another thing Kendra told us is that practically the entire island is private property, and so we followed her advice to stay at Green Acres Camp Ground. We arrived here relatively early in the day, 4:30 or so. We came up to the main office and were greeted by the owner he told us that the ground was not yet open for the season. We mumbled a few words about being disapointed and asked him where he thought we should stay. He then offered to let us stay the night if we could find a dry camping spot and if we didn't mind that the hot water hadn't been turned on. It would also cost . We found plenty of dry spots, but deciced that it might be worthwhile to try our hand at haggling. This made me a bit nervous. At least I wouldn't have to do the talking. Geoff made a careful plan about how to approach the topic, and reasoned it aloud. I practiced being quiet and trying not to look embarrased. Martin was behind us, I don't know what he was doing. We went into the office together and told him that we had found a suitable plot, and he said "That will be twenty bucks". Immediately Martin blurts out "That's fine, but can we have it for cheaper?". He lowered the price to dollars, and we had a good laugh about it later on.
The property is on the bay, and Martin and I went for a walk.
Geoff was happier with the meal this time. It was a stew cooked over a fire pit. Here are the ingredients:
Now we are all in bed and Martin is happily snoring beside me. Hopefully it won't be so cold tonight.
