Serpent River camp to HOME via Chi-Cheemaun ferry

Loading on the ferry, from the back end here

Heading for home today! 

We enjoyed our stay at the Serpent River camp on our last night. A camping neighbour is building out his own travel van, so we gave him a tour of ours as a sample. I think his will be quite different from ours, but a lot of similarities too. In return he forced a couple of glasses of good Italian wine on us (well, mostly on Cathie):

A rail line ran right behind our sites. In fact we crossed the tracks in the campground to get to our sites. Luckily only one slow train went through, and nothing overnight:

A camping cabin with the train in the background

The ferry terminal is at South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island, a little over 2 hours drive from the Serpent River camp. To catch the 3:30 crossing we had to be there by 2:30 at the latest. We had made reservations but they won't wait for latecomers.

So we had a leisurely drive down through part of Manitoulin Island. Really just followed Hwy 6 right down from Hwy 17. East to navigate. We stopped here and there:

Of course a stop at a yarn shoppe

A pretty little waterfall, High Falls

We were lined up at the ferry way early, with time for a much-needed nap. We expected to see the ferry coming in from in front of the lineup, but when it came, it sneaked in from beside us, and backed in to the dock:

Boarding was painless, and we were soon underway. The day had been overcast and rainy at times, but cleared up nicely for the crossing, although still cool:

We're glad to be able to take this ferry at last. We've been meaning to do it for a long time, as it hasn't been far from home. 

Does it pay for itself with the shorter drive when heading west from southern Ontario or back home? Dollarwise probably not, but it was a nice alternative on this day. It's been a busy trip and we're both tired, so extra nap times were appreciated.

We think this might be the last long driving trip we make. It's been a long haul, and while we've thoroughly enjoyed the trip and are glad to have been able to do it all, we were pretty much exhausted by the end.

Trip stats:

- Total mileage approx 8720

- fuel avg $1.83 per litre

- mileage average 8.8 L/100Km, or 26.7 US mpg