Tobermory & the Ferry Visitor Center

Yes, we were finally here at the very tip of the Bruce Peninsula in the small town of Tobermory. Three and a half hours of driving at a snails pace!

"Tobermory is a small community located at the northern tip of the Bruce Peninsula in the municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. It is 300km northwest of Toronto. The closest city to Tobermory is Owen Sound, 100km south of Tobermory and connected by Highway 6." (wikipedia, "Tobermory, Ontario")

Tobermory is known as the "fresh water SCUBA diving capital of the world", because of the numerous shipwrecks that lie in the surrounding waters.  This place is a popular vacation destination due to the beaches, the diving, and the relaxed pace of life and the untouched land.

People were there pretty early. We waited to get our car registered. If you are going to ride the ferry then you must "reserve" your ticket ahead of time. A cool plus was that we had a bit of a discount because the car was "energy efficient" (made after 2006), so yeah man!!!

After we were assigned a car lane, we parked it and checked out the area. There was a series of informational  posters about the area...(click to make larger if you are interested in reading the text):

Wow, Manitoulin Island's population is only 12,000.

Looks like they serve food on the boat. We'd eaten that big breakfast earlier and snacked on the way here...

Map of Manitoulin Island at the Ferry Visitor Center. As you can see, there are tons of bays and lakes within the island.

Here's a closeup of where we were going - C lives in the town of Tehkummah (pronounced "Tah-kuh-MAH"):

Here is a model of the ferry boat we would be boarding, the MS Chi-Cheemaun (Objibwe for "Big Canoe"). Call me immature, when I hear the word "Chi-Cheeman", I'm feel like I should be saying that perversely in a lilting Jamaican accent, "Chi Chi Mon!" Heh, heh, she said Chi Chi.

The MS Chi-Cheemaun passenger-car ferry connects Tobermory to Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.

(from wikipedia, "MS Chi-Cheemaun")

"The MS Chi-Cheemaun is a passenger and car ferry in Ontario, Canada, which traverses Lake Huron between Tobermory on the Bruce Peninsula and South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island. The ferry connects the two geographically separate portions of Highway 6 and is the vessel that replaced the MS Norgoma and the SS Norisle in 1974. The ferry service runs seasonally from mid-May to mid-October.



Chi-Cheemaun (in folk orthography or chi-jiimaan in the more standard Fiero double vowel spelling) means 'big canoe' in Ojibwe.

At the time of its launch the $12 million Canadian MS Chi-Cheemaun was the "largest, most modern vessel ever built for ferry service on the Great Lakes"."

Since we had some time to kill, we decided to get this "only in Canada" delicacy...a dessert with an unusual name...