From Wednesday through Friday Jen and I visited Manitoulin Island; in order to visit with the Guys at Manitoulin Transport.
The actual flight up there was not too bad, albeit the landing was frightening and shaky. The Plane slalomed it’s way into Gore Bay and showed the watery and sometimes desolate surface of Manitoulin Island below us.
The Terminal was small, like you would expect a Northern Ontario Airstrip to have, with some food, services, facilities and coffee on hand for the people waiting to leave or just arrived.
Our Ride (Shane) came and drove us to dinner at Gordon’s Lodge in Gore Bay.
Let me state the sunset in Gore Bay was nice. The Water was placid and the bluffs made the sunset all the more memorable. I could easily stay in Gore Bay with little care, save for the fact that there was nothing there.
No Tim Hortons
No Hospital
No 24 hour services
No Doughnut Shops
No Malls
No Walmart
No Theatre
No anything after 8PM (save the legion as I found out on Friday)
To tell the truth, I was dismayed at how barren and rocky the island appeared. Stones and dead trees dominated the road sides, but promising hills and bluffs peaked around us, which we were to explore on Thursday.
Shane treated us to a great dinner (which was amazing and while expensive, I can wholly recommend dinner at Gordon’s Lodge at Gore Bay)
After Dinner Shane dropped us off at our Hotel, which was actually a nice suite style apartment hotel. We had wired High-Speed, two televisions and all the amenities one would want in a small apartment. Save the one thing that would allow easy communication, a phone.
It seems that most visitors would have come with a cell phone (which is reasonable) and I don’t currently carry one (as they represent an undue expense).
So we hooked up the ‘net and contacted our family via Facebook Chat and MSN.
The Highspeed was great and TV was entertaining, but it was a long day and by 10:30 we were in bed.
After a good sleep I was treated to a sunrise over the Bluffs and at 9AM went with Shane for my Interview. (It went well and I was very impressed with the operation over at Manitoulin Transport).
After a hearty lunch with Shane and his Boss (CTO?CIO?) Tim Jen and I were let loose to explore the island.
We visited some falls (The Bridal Veil Falls)
We drove around the island and visited a few of the towns, but I couldn’t shake the “this is the moon and all is dead” feeling of the place.
I was impressed by the Job that was being offered, but the actual location was not appealing as a long-term residence.
Jen felt differently and by dinner was ready to call the island home sweet home.
We wandered the town a bit and retired to the hotel to watch Scrubs, Lost and ER.
On Thursday we awoke and had a hearty breakfast before heading out onto the bluffs to get pictures of the Bay and the town.
I had already decided by that point that I enjoyed visiting Gore Bay, but living there wasn’t in the cards.
So after a short meeting with Shane and a lovely lunch with Shane, Jen & Shane’s wife we left Gore Bay and had a somewhat bumpy ride back to Toronto and home.
I’ve posted more images of Gore Bay and Manitoulin Island over at my Flickr Page