Shakedown 2, The Sequel. Day 2

A fine day dawned for the second day of the second shakedown. A stroll down to the bath house at 8am confirmed temperatures rising with Chipmunks and Woodpeckers making their presence felt.

Given the sunshine, I took advantage of Mrs T's personal hour to wander through the woods  towards the lake. The footpath took me over the old river channel, resplendent in the warming morning, through Oak, Ash and Pine woods to the wooden walkway over the dunes. The woods were full of camp sites (all closed up due to the earliness of the season) and completely devoid of people. The walkway is designed to preserve the dunes and gave gorgeous views of the lake and its miles of sandy beach, disappearing into the distance, both left and right.  The last time we'd been here, the ice was piled high and stretched out about 100m into the lake. Today the beach was narrow and the water lapped gently on the sand; it was quite beautiful. I was on the beach for about 15 minutes and didn't see another soul, which was just fine.

Huron Shore at The Pinery

I headed back to the trailer (about 25 minutes walk) so that we could head out for a lunchtime rendezvous with a TV showing the footy, pre-planned at Paddington's Eatery in Grand Bend. We had a little drive around the park roads first; those that were open, that is. The  park is enormous and packed full of wildlife and we only managed to see a small part of it.

The boardwalk over the dunes

We headed out into civilization (if you can call Grand Bend civilization) and Paddington's. We'd read some good things about this little English bar and Mrs T had phoned earlier in the week to see if they'd have the Chelsea match on the TV. Unfortunately the information given was slightly duff because whilst they had Setanta Canada, the match was showing on Sportsnet, which they didn't have. Still, we had quite a nice and inexpensive pub meal. It's not a bad place to be in Grand Bend, especially if you're not a young trendy surfer type. The Bangers and Mash is to be recommended, by the way, and the pub is more Scottish than English!

After our abortive footy session, we headed into Grand Bend proper, a beach resort on Huron Shore famed for it's young and trendy people and shops. Main Street has been tarted up somewhat but unfortunately in April, virtually nothing was open so, despite the people about, it was all a bit curious. I'd like to come back in the summer but I think I'd have to be parking up at about 7 am because the place really is very popular.

Grand Bend - very Baywatch

Main Street Grand Bend

Mrs T suggested a run up the coast, around the bend even, to Goderich, Canada's self-styled "prettiest town". Up on the bluff, the town is a busy little place, set around a big square that contains the courthouse. There's a lovely little baker's there, Culbert's in West Street, which is highly recommended by us and many others. OK so they didn't have any Madeleines that day but their custard slice was a great substitute. 

Salt Elevators at Goderich

Down by the river, all was quiet, despite the huge grain and salt elevators on the dockside; even the shipping season hadn't really started yet. The little beaches were nice, though, and the sun had brought out a few people. There is a forlorn looking station at the foot of the bluff, sadly bereft of tracks. The building looks a little lost, especially as it's lost it's awning. Still, it's been preserved, which is quite unusual in 

Bereft Station at Goderich

Sunken ship - sort of

this neck of the woods. 


There's also a two storey steel wheel house from an old lake freighter parked on the grass, now a Marine Museum. It looks for all the world like the freighter is buried just beneath the grass! The sight isn't lost on the museum's owners, either, because there are a few other nautical artifacts half buried in the grass.

Following the mandatory stop at a Tim Horton's road block we headed south towards the Pinery again, stopping at a point on the lake where we'd stopped a couple of years previously on our way to Tobermory. It's just a little parking place at the top of a low cliff, overlooking Lake Huron, but it does give a great vista of the lake. This place, I think, will be a favourite for those who like to catch the famous Lake Huron sunsets. We found that we had a couple of chairs in the back of the car so we became old people and sat together in by the car, sheltering from the wind and enjoying each other's company.

Old people

Enjoying the view

With so much activity during the day, we retired to Towed Haul early and spent a leisurely evening listening to music and talking; it's a hard life this trailering!

Unlike the first shakedown trip, we decided we'd not start breaking camp until the Sunday morning, even with the threat of (more) rain. See, we're hardy souls. At least the temperature had risen and stayed risen, which was a welcome surprise after the previous night. What for Sunday we wondered?