"Have you been to Bruce Peninsula? Oh - you should go, Georgian Bay is just beautiful. You have to swim in the Bay and watch the sunset." I heard this so many times that we set off on a two-day trip to this finger of land which cuts off the Bay from Lake Huron. The two bodies of water are linked - but could not be more different. While Lake Huron's coast is shallow and sandy (the beach was on this occasion unsafe with bacteria from heavy rains), Georgian Bay's edge is rocky, cobbly and steep. Limestone banks surround the crystal clear, turquoise water. Fortunately Lake Huron does not spill into Georgian Bay!
Lake Huron at the Imperial Tower style Point Clark Lighthouse.
I like this passage from J. de Visser's and J. Ross' book Georgian Bay:
❝One long, lonely highway travels up the spine of the Pensinsula from Wiarton to Tobermory. The surrounding countryside is littered with abandoned farms. ... Plots of farmland were first sold to settlers in this area in 1856, just a year after the railroad reached Collingwood. ... The Indians who first settled the Bruce had already given it up. It wasn't long before a stream of eager pioneers began lining up for land holdings.
But the dreams of successful homesteading soon turned sour. Most of the newcomers bought their property at highly inflated prices during a brief land boom, planning to pay off their morgages by working their holdings. However, the timber rights to their properties had been sold separately and the settlers were only able to take down enough trees to build their homes. Without the ability to sell the timber or clear the land for farming, they were caught in a hopeless situation.
Furthermore, when the lumber-men finally got around to cutting down their trees, a horrible reality presented itself. The limestone land was sprinkled with thin soil and gravel, totally unsuitable for productive farming.❞
In 1987 a 140 sqkm section of this unique landscape, including a stretch of the Niagara Escarpment, was converted into the Bruce Peninsula National Park. And just as well, as the coastline of Georgian Bay is still solidly in private hands and access to the water is virtually impossible.
Isthmus Bay, north of Lion's Head - No Trespassing signs everywhere.
A miraculous sight: a spot of Public Access at the end of Cape Chin South Road.
We stayed for the afternoon at Cape Chin. It was heavenly there. We tried out our 'multiple use' BBQ set, and had a hard time getting it going. In the end it did warm the chicken skewers through and through, but I would not have called it a campfire. The waters were clear and warm-ish, swimming was a delight and our picnic turned out well. We had driven for so long, and the place was so gorgeous that we decided to stay the night somewhere around Tobermory and pay that National Park a visit.
The administration of Tobermory understands their visitors: They want restaurants, fudge and ice cream. They need to park their cars. They want to watch the sunset as it unfolds over Little Tub Harbour. They want to reach the islands of Fathom Five National Marine Park, view Flowerpot Island, and ogle from glass-bottom boats at the 21 shipwrecks in those treacherous waters.
❝The land does not end at Tobermory. The abrupt blunt edge of the Niagara Escarpment dives underwater here, rising in occasional jagged shoals of desolate islands. Finally the ridge of limestone rock rears up out of the water to form Manitoulin Island. In the the 48 km between Tobermory and Manitoulin Islands, the waters are littered with shipwrecks. Only three channels permit ships to cross this dangerous stretch of water where large shoal masses rise unexpectedly from the deep to lurk within a few metres of the surface. This is shipwreck country. Many of the wrecks date back to the 1850s, when ship traffic around Tobermory consisted of tall-masted schooners from the lower lakes.❞
J. de Visser and J. Ross Georgian Bay
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