What’s all this about then?
It’s Friday, September 23rd and we’re on the road again. This time we’re heading out on a tour that will take us around the Southern Ontario peninsula allowing us to visit family and some places that we’ve not visited before. Our first stop would be Woodstock for a couple of days where we ‘mooch docked’ in my brother’s laneway. The last time we visited was at the start of our Cross-continent trip in May of this year, it was nice to spend some time catching up on what’s new in our lives and those around us.
We left Woodstock on Sunday morning with the goal to head South to Long Point on Lake Erie; however, a quick detour took us past a house near Burgessville (below) familiar to the Fisher family.
Vittoria, ON
Our drive continued South through Norwich and Delhi. This area was the heart of Ontario’s ‘tobacco belt’ growing thousands of acres of the crop throughout the 20th century. As tobacco sales plummeted farmers in this area have had to shift to new crops such as Ginseng, asparagus and root vegetables, the sandy soil proving to be perfect for such crops. During our drive we passed several large distribution facilities setup to collect and take crops to larger metropolitan centers. However, if you looked closely there were still old tobacco drying kilns on many of the farms, left out of denial that they no longer had a purpose.
We stopped in the village of Vittoria, a small community south of Simcoe as I had discovered while researching Barb’s ancestry that a branch of her family had initially settled in Ontario in this area was an integral part of the community and contributed to the building of the local Baptist church.
“Located about three miles from Lake Erie, the little village had become, in the early 1800’s, the most active and important commercial centre between Niagara Falls and Detroit. It was not only the hub of the Long Point Settlement, but also, from 1815 to 1825 the judicial capital of the London District of Upper Canada, hosting the district courts and the Registry offices.” (Website: Welcome to Vittoria, Ontario, Canada)
We discovered that the church building still stands but now houses a bakery with the main floor being a space available for renting by the community. We purchased a few goodies from the bakery and were directed toward a local pizzeria whose specialty is ‘Dill Pickle Pizza’, Barb couldn’t resist and so lunch was to be a couple of personal sized pizzas that we enjoyed while parked alongside the beach in the village of Turkey Point.
Long Point Provincial Park, Port Rowan, ON
Our Sunday drive ended with us leaving Turkey Point and driving to Long Point Provincial Park. Located on the Long Point sandbar that projects into Lake Erie and home to many waterfowl and a stopover for many migratory birds, the area is a destination for many bird watchers.
Below you can see we had a sheltered site surrounded by trees and close to the camp showers. The day had been sunny for the most part, but the winds had been increasing throughout the day with rain forecast in the days ahead. We ventured to the beach and as you can in the photograph below, the winds were quite gusty, yet protected by sand dunes, the campground was sheltered from the wind. We spent two quiet nights camping here.
Fanshawe Conservation Area, London, ON
Tuesday September 27th and time to leave Long Point and head North but not before touring a little further West along the lakeshore to Port Stanley. A popular spot for Londoners to get away from the city during the warmer summer months, late September sees the beach empty and nearby businesses closed for the season.
Our drive from here turned North towards St. Thomas and onto London where we stopped for a quick lunch before heading around the city to the Fanshawe Conservation Area where we planned to stay for a couple of nights but ended up staying just one. The campground was quiet with the sites being grassy and treed. Like Long Point, here we also found ourselves outside of any cellular service which hindered our ability to plan our upcoming days.
On Wednesday we headed North into Huron county where we stopped in Exeter and “mooch docked” at Barb’s parents. It was nice to visit for a few days as we had not seen them since May and so we spent time filling them in on our travels this year.
Goderich, ON
Saturday October 1st saw us leave Exeter and head towards Goderich where we would spend the night with Barb’s sister. It also gave Barb the opportunity to go to a beach on Lake Huron, something that she tries to ensure she does at least once a year. You can take a girl away from the lake, but you can’t take the lake away from the girl.
MacGregor Point Provincial Park, Port Elgin, ON
Sunday would see us driving North along the lake towards Port Elgin. the rain from the previous week had moved out and we were now blessed with sunny skies and very nice autumn weather. Near Port Elgin is MacGregor Point Provincial Park, a large park with several campgrounds and a lot of sites some of which are available for camping year-round. Our site was surrounded by trees and only one other site was visible from our site. As you can see in the photos below, we finally had a campfire and enjoyed an epic sunset over the lake. The beach was empty because of the time of year and so afforded us a quiet walk along the edge of the water. This is a beautiful park and we will definitely return for a longer stay in the future.
Port Elgin, ON
After a couple of nights at MacGregor Point, we continued our trip on Tuesday October 4th by first heading into Port Elgin and exploring the harbour area. Clearly another lakeside town that becomes very quiet outside of the warm summer months.
Our last camping stop of this trip would require us to drive some distance back across the province eastward. Our route took us around the southern edge of Georgian Bay through Owen Sound, Meaford and onto Collingwood where we would then head away from the lake towards Orillia and south to Lindsay and Peterborough before arriving in Campbellford.
Ferris Provincial Park, Campbellford, ON
We arrived at Ferris Provincial Park without a reservation and after the gatehouse had closed for the day. There were instructions to simply drive in and locate a site completing the registration the following day. We chose a treed site in the upper campground and settled in for the next couple of days. A smaller park on the edge of the river just on the outskirts of the town, there are lots of walking trails with some leading into town for easy access to supplies. The suspension bridge across the river afforded some great views along the gorge.
And that’s a wrap for 2022 camping!
As you can see in the picture above, we both enjoyed this trip very much. The Autumn is a favourite time of the year when the weather can still be warm and the fall colours are beautiful. We drove home along Highway 7 towards Perth and then onto Smiths Falls, this drive allowing us to see some stunning displays of fall foliage.
This is our last camping trip in our van of 2022, its been a fun year in which we’ve been fortunate enough to see many beautiful places across the continent. Where will we venture in 2023? For that you will have to ‘stay tuned’ as our planning is now just beginning.
