Day 7, Driving via Point Clark Lighthouse
to Tobermory
Monday, September 16, 2019
In the morning we enjoyed a good breakfast in the Harbourview Hotel in
Sarnia before we checked out and started our 'roadtrip' to Tobermory on
the end of the Bruce Peninsula, almost four hundred kilometer.
At the Enterprise car rental in Mississauga, we had rented a Garmin GPS
for our trip. Unfortunately it is not working. Almost all addresses we
try to go to are 'not found' by the Garmin.
Fortunately, I have a plan B and that is my old Nokia Windows Phone with
'Here Drive' satnav and also a paper map of Ontario.
So now we use the Nokia phone with Here Drive but for some reason that
I don't understand, the Nokia let us ride South before going North and
we drove past a lot of chemical industry plants.
Industrial area of Sarnia
After we left the industrial area, there was much less traffic and long
straight roads.
Straight roads
A big truck, riding behind us
At a few minutes past ten, we filled the tank at a gas station Forest Gas
& Variety in Forest and a few minutes later, about half past ten, we had
our first coffee stop at a Tim Hortons restaurant.
Coffee at Tim Hortons
We ordered a Cappuccino each. They make real good coffee at Tim Hortons.
Because we liked the coffee, we would like a Tim Hortons mug as a souvenir
so we asked if that was possible but the answer was no.
Then we drove North to Highway 21. Highway 21 is close to the coast of
Lake Huron. We used this road until Amberley, where we turned left in
the direction of Point Clark.
Anneke was driving so I could take pictures along the way of interesting
things that we saw.
A nice garage entrance
Farm and windmills
De housenumbers of the houses are higher than we are used to
An old barn
The Bluewater watertower
Highway 21
The lake must be nearby
A strange vehicle
Classic cars in a field
A little before half past twelve, we arrived at the parking next to the
Point Clark Lighthouse. I knew the museum and lighthouse were not open
anymore but I wanted to see the lighthouse anyway.
At the shore of Lake Huron
Point Clark Lighthouse
To get back on the main road, we had to ride a dirtroad but it was a
well maintained road so it was no problem.
Dirtroad near Point Clark
In Kincardine, a few kilometers North of Point Clark, we had lunch at a
McDonald.
I ordered at the big computer screen and payed with my creditcard but
got no receipt so I asked the staff for assistance. They printed a new
receipt for me but did nothing about the not working printer........
Anneke had a BigMac menu and I had a double Fishfilet sandwich.
On our way North, we came past a group of four powerlines running next
to eachother. Someone is pumping a lot of electricity to somewhere.
Powerlines
The roads are very straight. Almost sixty kilometer straight on, on the
satnav of the Nokia phome.
A steady 80 km/h for almost 60 kilometer
Anneke and I both like to drive but I also like to take pictures so this
time, Anneke was driving again. The next long ride, I will be driving.
Anneke behind the wheel
On an intersection, we saw a dumptruck, with a stange construction up front.
Truck
We have not seen many police cars but now we saw one along Highway 21, waiting
for speed demons. No problem, we use the cruise control and don't want to break
the law in a foreign country.
Police car
We would have like to see more of the lake but almost always, there is a
forest or a row of houses between the road and the lake but finaly, a little
past Wiarton, we saw a littke bit of the lake.
The lake
The scenery changed a little bit. The roads are still straight but go up
and down over the hills.
Up and down and up en down and.....
Yesterday, Norma told us that Greig's Caves near Lions Head are worth
visiting so 407 Scenic Caves Rd was the address that I used in the satnav.
I had to allow dirtroads before the satnav could accept this address and
indeed, it was a four kilometer dirtroad to the address and another
kilometer to get at the ticket sales booth.
The road to the caves
In the end, we did not see the caves. The hike to and from the caves is
two hours and Anneke can not walk that long so we went back on the dirtroad
to the main road and continued our trip North.
Half past three, we parked the car at the marina of Lions Head and took
some pictures.
Lions Head Marina
The beach, no sand but pebbles
A nice house on the beach
Anneke in a picture frame
Then we wanted to carry on so Anneke walked to the car, opened the door
and got in. Then she wanted to start the car but the key did not fit....
It was the wrong car.......
She got out of the car and the lady who owned the car came walking to her
and Anneke explained that she had mistaken the silvergrey Honda for our
silvergrey Volkswagen. Fortunately the owner of the Honda did not mind.
It had been a while since our last coffee so we parked the Volkswagen next
to a small restaurant to get a coffee. Anneke wanted an icecream to but, when
we saw the prices they asked for coffee and icecream, we skipped the
icecream and just had coffee (and Anneke a candy bar).
A small but expensive restaurant in Lions Head....
....but the coffee was good
From the restaurant we walked to the Foodland store to buy some apples
and yoghurt and the we walked to the shore to look at the lighthouse
and the rocks accross the bay that gave Lions Head its name.
Lighthouse and the lions head rock
With our yoghurt and apples, we went back to the car and via Highway 6
we went North to Tobermory to the Cedar Vista Motel.
A schoolbus
A lot of houses in Ontario have the same type of garden chair
in their yard and near Tobermory, we saw a giant chair of that
type on the side of the road.
A chair for a giant
It is a little to early for the real Indian summer but some
trees start to have their beautiful autumn colors.
The trees start to have their autumn colors
Finaly, al half past five, we found the motel. It was not
as easy as I expected. About ten kilometers South of Tobermory,
the satnav showed that we had reached our destination but we
had not.
I had to switch internet connection on, on my Android phone and
use the Booking.com site and Google maps to find out the motel
was in Tobermory, ten kilometers to the North.
Cedar Vista Motel
In the motel, we were welcome by a very friendly manager who told
us a lot about what we can do in Tobermory and he gave us the keys
of our rooms. Anneke has a room on one side of the building, next
to the office, and my room is on the other side of the building.
The rooms are nice and clean so it is OK with us. After unloading
our luggage, we had dinner with bread buns and yoghurt.
We could get coffee from the managers office so we enjoyed a cup of
coffee in front of my room.
Coffee time
Tomorrow we will get a boat to Flowerpot Island.
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