Point Pelee National Park…an Ontario Treasure.

Leaving Paris behind….but not quite out of Ontario yet….our last stop before crossing the Ambassador bridge was in Amherstburg to spend a couple of days with a good friend.

The weather had returned to the more typical Ontario standard of hot and humid …..so in the interest of not boiling the cat alive we opted to stop at Willowood RV park just a few minutes outside Amherstburg.

It’s a lovely campground with big spreading trees and reliable 50amp service to run both chilly AC units.

Even though we lived in Ontario for many years and it was on our list for a visit, we had never made it down to Point Pelee national park. So we packed up our water bottles and snacks and headed down there for a grand day out.

Point Pelee is the most southerly point on the Canadian mainland…..apparently as far south as parts of Northern California…..

Knowing the walk out to the point was going to be pretty much flat…we made the woeful decision to put on sandals…..Sandals are fine in the heat…perfectly comfortable for easy terrain with little or no elevation….but really not suited for walking any purposeful distance on the beach….!!!

The blogtographer wanted us on the beach….( Editor. I mistakenly assumed sandals were designed for ‘sand’ )

We posed for his pictures…..( Editor. In a ‘let’s get this over with’ way )

Then headed back to the trail….. (he was the smart one with shoes on…!!…don’t tell him I said that)

Tho we were past the spring season and well into summer…there were still some blooming cacti and trees along the way….

The trail we were following, tho not on the beach front was still pretty sandy…so we thought we might indulge the guy with the camera and since our feet were being filled with sand anyway….maybe try walking along the water edge….

The sand not in the water was hot…..and gritty ( in a large and sharp way…!!)…the ‘sand’ on the waterline….was also pretty sharp…and you can see the slope of the beach….it was tough going to walk barefoot…..so we gave up again…..

But then the problem was de-gritting and drying our feet….

Before the last walk out to the point …there is a huge lookout tower…(in the first picture we are halfway up….in the second we are at the top looking for camera guy.)

The view from up there is phenomenal….but it was a hazy day….

From there its more walking on sand (whilst chatting …of course..!!) to get out to the point.

It’s a strange projection out into the lake…and the way the waves come in from opposite directions they clash over the sand point…..hard to photograph…..you just have to go there I guess…..😊

We used the sandy feet excuse (plus it was hot and humid..!!) to take the shuttle back to the visitor centre…..

….then took a stroll out onto the baordwalks through the marshland……which is HUGE at Point Pelee….its a birders paradise…..

If you look really closely at that final picture above you can see we are still in it…and still chatting….putting the world to rights…LOL

All in all a lovely place to visit and wander through…..maybe in cooler weather tho…..

We stopped at the Oxley winery for a very civilised late lunch/early supper……and then another stop to see if we could see Pelee island from the ferry port at Kingsville….

It was too hazy….but we did meet these lovely people fishing off the pier……and successfully too….

A Grand day out it was indeed.

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