In Bruce Peninsula National Park there is also a viewing tower that affords amazing views out over the National Park and Georgian Bay. A lot of stairs, but well worth the climb!
After a walk it was time to relax, so out onto Lake Huron and Georgian Bay I went, for a cruise on a glass bottom boat over some of the shipwrecks and out to some of the islands in Fathom Five National Marine Park.
Big Tub Lighthouse stands on the mainland, marking the entrance into Tobermory's natural harbour, Big Tub. Prior to the lighthouse construction in 1885, Tobermory's first settler, James Earl, hung a lantern atop a pole to guide the schooners into the harbour.
The remains of two vessels, the Sweepstakes and the City of Grand Rapids, are located in the shallow water at the head of Big Tub Harbour. The wreckage can be seen through the glass bottom of the boat and by looking over the sides.
The Sweepstakes ran aground about 6 kms away from Tobermory in the fall of 1885 and the following spring she was towed to her present location in Big Tub Harbour before she sank. Her hull is nearly intact with the top deck only 2 metres below the surface.
In 1907 the City of Grand Rapids caught fire while berthed at Little Tub Harbour and in order to prevent the fire from spreading to other vessels and buildings she was towed out of the harbour and released. The burning hull drifted down into Big Tub, burnt to the waterline and sank.
The next hour (plus) was spent cruising around some of the islands in this area - Russel Island, Cove Island, South and North Islands to name a few of the larger ones.
This is Rock Island (good name for it) with no shortage of bird life - ring-billed and herring gulls and double-crested cormorants.
Flowerpot Island gets its name from two unusual rock formations on its eastern shore.
Can you see him - the old man overlooking the lake?
Later in the afternoon it was time to board the Chi-Cheemaun ferry for the two hour trip over to Manitoulin Island.
On the way we passed Cove Island with the Cove Island Lighthouse marking the main shipping entrance into Georgian Bay. Completed in 1858 it is one of six similar lights known as the Imperial Towers that were built on the Canadian shore of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. Cove Island was the last manned lighthouse on Georgian Bay.
Providence Bay, a sleepy little hamlet of about 150 people, on the south shore of Manitoulin Island, is going to be 'home' for the next three days. Although small, Providence Bay has a lovely boardwalk that runs for about a kilometre along the shore line, and walking along it that first night I saw an otter swimming at the mouth of the Mindemoya River.
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