POINT FARMS PROVINCIAL PARK

Wednesday July 24th                               313637                                     10 a.m.

Time for some R & R.

Took off in bright sunshine heading for Point Farms, Goderich.   Always an easy ride as most of it is through the country.  Passed many farms.  Naturally all farmers are extremely busy at this time of the year.

Made a stop along the way in Lucknow for a lottery ticket.  Why Lucknow?  Who knows? May be a good omen!

All set by noon.  Site 122, a really good site.
313742.  Not too far from home,  105km.

Relaxed for a while, had lunch then decided it was time to wander down, literally "down" that is, to the beach.   We took the Tommy Wright trail down.  No stairs on that trail.
But that did promise 131 stairs to climb back up.

It was very breezy along the beach and the waves were quite ferocious. The Marine forecast had indicated waves of 1 - 2 metres, and from what we were seeing that was no exaggeration.

As always a really nice walk along the beach area, but very windy so headed along The Old Farms Trail, where it was a little more sheltered.

Back at site for late afternoon, where we settled down for a dominoes tournament, best out of three.  Yes, you are all correct, I did it again - the Champion!  Loser cooks supper.  Guess I can relax around the campfire for a while now.

The wind died down, the BBQ was great (Mike's Chef's hat worked well) and the fire was fantastic.  So all in all it was, once again, another good day.

THURSDAY 25th JULY
My goodness only 5 months to Christmas Day, when, weather permitting, we will be enjoying our picnic lunch on the beach in Port Elgin.

However, today the sun is shinning and it is getting warmer by the minute.  Still a light breeze, but nothing like yesterday.   After breakfast we decided we would walk The Old Farms Trail around the perimeter of the park.

We came to a fork in the trail, Hare's Trail or Tortoise's Trail?

Being such a beautiful morning and far too nice to hurry it away, we took the Tortoise's Trail and just meandered slowly along until we met the Old Farm Trail again.  The trail was very well groomed and made for a nice easy walk.  Probably a good thing as it was getting quite warm and we had a good couple of hours more walking to do to get back to camp.  Well worth it though.

Back at camp we relaxed for a while, had a late lunch, did some reading and then planned our next walk. 

This time we went back to the beach area.  So very different to yesterday.  Hardly a breeze and no huge waves. 

Of course wandering the beach meant another 131 steps to climb back up to be able to return to our camp.  Stopped half way to take this picture.

Pleased to say it seemed a lot easier than it was yesterday.

Back at camp for Happy Hour.  It had been a really nice afternoon.

We were just relaxing around the campfire when Adam (from Moonshiner's Daughter) stopped for a chat.  Adam and Cara arrived that afternoon.  Adam was out with Cameron and Lindsay on their bikes.  They invited us to their site for a visit later.  Which we did, and had a lot of fun.

Back at our site we sat around our fire for sometime, just enjoying the peace, quiet and the stars.  There we go again, another great day!

FRIDAY 26th July.
Lovely sunny morning.  After breakfast we took our time packing up ready to head home - not that we want to. 

Decided to walk the Ravine Trail after we had packed up.  It was perfect weather for hiking this trail, which is probably our favorite trail in this park.  You are literally walking in the tree tops in some areas, and it a very long way down to the bottom of the ravine.  Extremely pretty.

A view from the tree tops looking towards the Lake.

From the trail we went down 138 steps to the beach below (which is what you see in the picture).

From there we just wandered the beach from the northern tip of the park to the southern end of the park.

About half way along the beach we met up with Adam and Cara, their friends and kids who had found a perfect spot to relax and let the kids play in the lake and build sand castles.  Had a visit with all of them then back to walking.

The steps at the southern end of the park always seem the most difficult to climb, due to the fact there are not hand rails on all the steps.  Oh well, once again we survived them all.

So onto our site ready to leave for the next lucky people.  We had been walking close to 3 hours.  It had been a fun morning.

When we left the park we decided it would be good to stop in at The King`s Pearl in Tiverton again for a late lunch, which I think we deserved after our hike through the tree tops - don`t you?

Then we really did have to head home.  Nice ride through the country again.  Home about 4.30 pm.  Still nice warm and sunny.

Looks like August could be a busy month for us, so where will our travels take us?  You will be the first to know!