Cruise to see the Flowerpot Island in Tobermory!

August 27-28, 2017:  We woke up at a nice decent hour on the third day and made breakfast.  We were experts now at starting the fires.  We had bought tickets for the glass-bottom cruises from Bruce Anchor Cruises to see Flowerpot Island at 1:40 p.m. so we decided that we would make and eat lunch on the site too.  After a nice hot shower for me, we began making lunch by 11:30 a.m. and set out at 1:15 p.m. to park our car and get to the shuttle bus.

Our first meal of the day — delicious breakfast! ^_^

Found this little guy when adjusting our tent

Another one!

Our lunch!

Delicious and perfectly toasted bagel with lentil soup :9 Burger patty too 🙂

The parking lot was a little difficult to find at first but once we did, we immediately parked and boarded the shuttle bus which took us to the harbour where the Flowerpot Island cruise would leave from.

Our cruise tickets

The complimentary shuttle bus from the parking lot to the harbour

The Bruce Anchor harbour!

This was the 1:30 p.m. ferry

So nice 🙂

Our 1:40 p.m. ferry!

The cruise had a glass-bottom and it took us to see the shipwrecked boats that were still preserved under the clear waters.  It was a really neat sight to see the wood of the sunken ships.  The tour guide mentioned that the wood of the boats were so thick and dense that if they were to cut apart the wood, the inside of it would still be dry! :O

On board the Evolution boat

So many tourists

Sailing towards the shipwrecked boats

More views

Yay! Got to the shipwrecked part!

You can see the boat underneath the ferry

So neat!! The waters were so clear too

After this, the boat took us about 30 minutes across the open waters to Flowerpot Island.

Lighthouse with some kayakers

It looked stormy

Fellow passengers

“Flowerpots” are a geological landform leftover from parts of the land that were previously underwater and shaped over decades of water flowing against it.  When the water levels receded and a piece close to it breaks off, it remains standing as a “pot”.  Vegetation grows over it to make it look like a flowerpot.  There were three of these on Flowerpot Island: a large flowerpot, a small flowerpot, and a rounded one on the beach.

Arrival to Flowerpot Island! You can see the biggest flowerpot there

Our time to depart the island and return back on the boat was 4:50 p.m. which meant that we had about two hours from the time we stepped foot on the island to walk about and see the flowerpots and light houses.

First look from the island

Spot the little chipmunk! They were all over Tobermory, an animal I don’t see often in Toronto

There was a rocky beach.  It was too bad that it was a bit gloomy that day otherwise our views would have been even nicer.  And although it was initially windy when we got there, it wasn’t too bad later on.  The waters were just as clear as they were when we were at the Grotto yesterday!

Beach made with rocks

It was an interesting walk for the feet here

Whee!

There were a lot of tourists and it was at times difficult to get a good shot without people in the way when it came to seeing the flowerpots.

How flowerpots are made

Approaching the large flowerpot in our stroll

Partial flowerpot formations on the island

Clear signs telling us how far it is to the flowerpots

Large flowerpot!!

Round flowerpot

The lighthouse was interesting and there was a museum inside of it, both the ground and upper levels.

Solar power

Lighthouses

The entirety of the island

Creepy-looking things inside the museum XD

Views as we walked back

By 4:30 p.m., we were back at the dock and ready to go ‘home’.

This looks like the Scarborough Bluffs XD

Information about the island

History about the shipwrecks

More info

This time, the cruise was a different smaller one than the one that we arrived in.  By then, the winds had picked up and it was definitely gloomier than when we arrived.

Our ferry approaching!

A different bottom glass ferry this time, the Frontier

Inside of the Frontier

This time we got a direct glass bottom view

Time flew and already it was our last night at the campfire.  We celebrated with another great dinner, beers, and a walnut tart! ^_^

Final camping dinner!

Walnut tart!

Final nighttime campfire

The stars at night were so bright and beautiful…!

…

The next day, we woke up late.  I finally slept really well.  The night before, I had put an extra blanket on top of my doubled-up yoga mats and my comforter too.  The bed was finally not so hard on the gravel ground.

We hurriedly made and ate breakfast and then washed up and packed up our entire campsite away by 11 a.m.  It was bittersweet to be leaving so soon but our trip was done.

Yay! Stew for breakfast ^_^

Stew and toasted bagels 🙂

Our humble abode

We took advantage of our last beautiful campfire and tried to cook the popcorn (the ones in those pre-packaged tin containers).  Unfortunately, in our haste and my uncertainty over whether it was fully popped or not, I ended up burning the kernels.  Lol oops.

Popping corn over an open fire

Although we wanted to do some kayaking in Little Tub Harbour before we left, it was a gloomy and rainy morning.  We walked around the shops instead and then enjoyed lunch at a local fish and chips place.

Little Tub Harbour — much gloomier than the first day we saw it

Tobermory map

😛

Paddle not provided XD

This restaurant was called The Fish & Chip Place — I know, how original. 😛  We were lucky to get a patio table which was so nice on a cool and breezy day.  We ordered their namesake fish and chips to share, an appetizer portion of their clam chowder, and their Tobermory Fish Taco (which apparently put them on the map).

Menu

The Fish and Chips were two pieces of lightly battered fresh Georgian Bay Whitefish served with fries and tartar sauce.  I thought that the fish was nicely battered and fried indeed but that the fish meat was a little bland.  It relied on the tartar sauce for flavouring.  The fries were good.

Fish and Chips. $12.95
-two pieces of lightly battered fresh Georgian Bay Whitefish served with generous helping of fries

The Clam Chowder appetizer portion was a good size.  I didn’t like that it was so dense and thick.  The taste was fine though.

Clam Chowder (appetizer). $4.95

The Tobermory Fish Taco was huge!  It looked like a burrito.  For $5.95, this was a really good deal.  It had crispy bits of fish served on a soft tortilla with shredded cabbage, tangy white sauce, salsa, and garnished with a lime wedge.  This was not bad although the “crispy bits” of fish were really just bits of fish and not full fish meat.  It had a lot of shredded cabbage in it too and made it seem healthy that way.

Tobermory Fish Taco. $5.95
-crispy bits of fish served on a soft tortilla with shredded cabbage, tangy white sauce, salsa, garnished with a lime wedge

Good local food!

I liked that our server already had our bill in her pocket when we asked for us which saved on the waiting time.  It was a very popular spot for lunch and lots of people were waiting for a table when we left.

Line-up outside the restaurant

Getting an iced coffee from The Coffee Shop before our trip home

Our parking ticket (which someone generously gave to us at a discounted cost) was until 2 p.m. at which time we promptly made our way home back south.

You can see that road moving up a hill in the distance

It was a great trip.  We learned how to build a campfire and cook on it (cast iron skillet is the best!), spent time with mother nature, visited the well-known parts of Tobermory, and had a lot of quality couple time.  Yay for extended weekend getaway trips! ^_^