Belle Vie / 19: Bruce Peninsula National Park

September 3, 2014November 11, 2014Leave a comment

1. As I mentioned, I went camping in Bruce Peninsula National Park last week. We stopped at Canadian Tire on the way up to grab some things and saw this sweet van. Old Yeller!
2. We brought an abundance of grapefruits to make juice and tasty bourbon drinks. We camp classy.
3. We might have finished this entire bottle of bourbon over the week…
4. Put up a hammock but something was weird about it. You’d sit in it and it would just sink on one side. We are not good at hammocks, apparently.
5. Thank god we brought an axe and hatchet with us to make kindling. Last time I went camping we forgot that, and it was a pain in the ass, let me tell you.
6. Ryan makes a good fire.
7. Ummm, ya Ryan brought a lot of cardboard shit to burn…including two Pizza Pizza boxes…
8. Receipts as well? Don’t ask, Ryan is weird.
9. But a good fire, none the less.
10. Proof that I can smile.
11. Ryan wanted to see if he could jump over our tent. I knew this would go down in one of two ways. One, he would make it over easily. Two, he would crush our tent right after we put it up. He made it over and was like really, really pleased with himself.
12. Lying in the hammock, looking up at the trees.
13. The road driving up to the park. There is something so calming about an open, quiet road. A rarity when you live in the city.
14. We stopped by the store on the second day to pick up some more ice for our cooler. This place had showers because there are none in the campgrounds. We didn’t shower, which I never do when I’m camping. teehee!

*I’ve got so much more to share with you. These were only from the first day and the next morning.

Grotto and Greig’s

August 12, 2013November 11, 2014Leave a comment

If you know Bruce Peninsula, then you likely know of The Grotto. It is one of the more popular attractions, and with very good reason. It was quite breath taking (minus, oh my god, black fleas eating my whole body!). It was about a 30 minute hike from our camp site, and a very nerve racking scaling down some rocky walls to get to the heart of it. It is not very reassuring when you enter the area and see a big sign that reads “People have died here.” But clearly, that did not stop us, and we lived to tell the tale! The wonderful thing about many of the sites we explored in the Bruce was that they were in their natural state, but that also mean’t you were putting yourself at risk in some way. The same went for the Greig’s Caves we hiked in. Signs everywhere reminding us “Explore at own risk”, and signing a waiver before beginning our hike, saying they are not responsible for injury, death etc. – okay cool, hopefully see you in an hour? The caves were amazing though!!! And worth the danger. It was one of the more intense hikes I’ve ever been on, but incredibly scenic. The view from on top of the caves was insanely beautiful!

Matt was brave enough to jump into the freezing cold water of the Grotto (he has a thing about swimming in every body of water). I however, just watched and told him he was crazy, and then I flailed about to stop the black fleas from swarming me, so I guess I looked crazy.

This is the last little bit of my digital photos from Bruce Peninsula. I have a bunch of film to be developed, so I’m sure the Bruce will make some sort of appearance again.

flash does no favours for the pale skinned folk.

Flowerpot Island

August 5, 2013November 11, 2014Leave a comment

Flowerpot Island is about 6.5 kilometres off the coast of Tobermory, and was given its name due to the 1 million year old shoreline rock pillars that resemble giant flowerpots. Matt and I took a ferry ride to get there, checking out some shipwrecks along the way that are in such shallow water, you can practically see every detail of these ships. That was cool, obviously. But not as cool as the island. This, by far, was my favourite part of the trip to Bruce Peninsula. The water surrounding Flowerpot Island is so clear and so blue, you’d think you were in the Caribbean – which I never have, but my mind took me there regardless. I could have hiked around this island all day. The forest was beautiful, the water was beautiful, the rock formations were beautiful. EVERYTHING was beautiful!

It is a holiday today, so I do not want to spend too much time talking about my trip last weekend, because well, I’ve got some work to catch up on, and when I started to think of ways to describe this part of my trip, I almost wanted to keep it to myself (and Matt, of course). I am just not eloquent enough to describe such amazing things. So I’ll let the photos do the talking. oh hello, mr shipwreck! weird little happy dance

Shirt, shorts and boots: thrifted
Bow tie: handmade
Knapsack: my dearest friend Kristen gave to me
Sunglasses: Philistine
Belt: vintage

Grey County – Morland Place

July 29, 2013November 11, 2014Leave a comment

I am back from what I think could be my favourite trip to-date. I really had zero expectation for this trip – just a desire to leave the city and enjoy nature to it’s fullest. Bruce Peninsula and what little of the Fathom Five Marine Parks I saw on Lake Huron/Georgian Bay are truly amazing. I have so many pictures, so this will probably end up in a two parter (or more, because I have film to develop as well). I do not think I even have the words to describe the perfection that I saw.

On our way to Bruce Peninsula National Park, Matt had to take a bathroom break, so we stopped at this Heritage Village, not really expecting to stay long. Neither of us had much interest in it. It reminded me of Upper Canada Village, and I didn’t really feel like taking any sort of tour. But in the field across from the village I saw some really old buildings, and what I thought were abandoned. This peaked our interest and we wandered on over. Boy were we surprised when we found way more than just old buildings. At first we weren’t even sure we were allowed to enter, but we kept going out of curiosity. Once we got onto the grounds, we ran into two women, who asked us if we even knew anything about what this place was (the answer was no). The only information they gave us was that a man about 80 yrs old now, owns 15 acres of the land, and built all the stone work, European and Perennial style gardens, most of the buildings and hedge maze(!!!) himself. We kept joking about an old man peering through windows at us as we wandered the grounds, making the whole thing that much weirder. This man, literally, has a Secret Garden! It felt, to me, like a replica of the garden in said movie. Matt and I kept turning to each other throughout our walk saying “Do you believe this?! Oh, I think today, I will build a hedge maze. And then after that, the Garden of Versailles.” It was truly incredible, and I sort of feel like I made this place up. The pictures do no justice, as his ground were so vast, you’d almost need an aerial view to get a true understanding.

I’ll probably share my photos from Bruce Peninsula next week, but maybe this week, who really knows! And more than likely, there will be no shop update this week, as my schedule is all flippity-do from this trip.