Manitoulin Island : South Baymouth

The Chi-Cheemaun ferry from Tobermory docks on Manitoulin Island at a village called South Baymouth which literally consists of a couple of blocks, filled with restaurants, galleries and vacation rentals.  We stayed there only one evening and still were able to walk around the entire village 3 times. 

We stayed at the Buckhorn Inn, located on the highway just outside of the main drag.  This motel was not as quaint and picturesque as the lodgings in the heart of South Baymouth, and lacked both air conditioning and internet.  But it was a great price for one night and the hospitality we got the next morning at breakfast more than made up for it.  We were met with fresh home-made strawberry-blueberry muffins and had the greatest conversation with the extremely friendly host.  He gave us tips on what to do on the island for the few hours that we had to sightsee and regaled us with stories of past guests and happenings at the motel, including the discovery of a prehistoric squid fossil on the property.  It is currently displayed on the front lawn and looks a bit like a huge carrot imbedded in stone.

Not only was there no WIFI at the motel, but cell service did not work at all on the island, so we were without connectivity for the whole day.  We are now so dependent on internet access that we actually found the only internet cafe in town and spent the latter part of the evening after dinner there.  Imagine being "forced" to eat ice cream just so we could surf the net... life is hard when you're on vacation!   We also wandered around a few art galleries that sold mostly native Indian art and learned that we had just missed Manitoulin Island's major island-wide art show by one day!

For dinner we continued our quest for local fresh fish and found it at Island Fish and Chips.  Before reaching the restaurant, we first came across their quirky advertisement truck which was populated by a couple of stuffed dummies in plastic halloween masks.  The accompanying sign read "Fresh white fish .. if it was any fresher, it would still be swimming."   We each got two huge chunks of lightly battered fish and shared a bag of freshly home-made potato chips.  Both were delicious as was the butter tart that Rich got for dessert.  Eating all this on a park bench by the water while we watched the sun go down completed the experience.  The only irritant was trying to keep the seagulls away.