I know a few of my friends have been talking about taking a trip to Amherst Island one of these seasons but just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Well, here's a great opportunity coming up on Nov. 17, 2012, and an affordable one at that; from Authentic Canadian Tours! At $75 you cannot go wrong.
$75! I can hear some squawking, but also some eyebrows raising too. For me, that's incredibly reasonable. Think about the cost of gas as an example. Amherst is approximately 3 hours east of Toronto at a distance of approximately 260 kms. And that is one way.
Another reason for me is I love the fact I can drive to the York Mills subway station, park my vehicle and hop on the bus that takes us to Amherst. Driving can be exhausting, and especially if you don't exactly know where you are going. Leave it up to the tour company to get you there and just relax, enjoy the view out the window from your seat. Have a snooze even due to the early start. And with a stop off at Tim Hortons along the way, enjoy your coffee and hot breakfast without worries of losing time sitting in the restaurant or fumbling with your meal at the wheel.
And lastly, Murray Shields, the founder of this company is an excellent host. He does his best to ensure every one of his guests is enjoying their day out with him. And it's just that, he doesn't treat people as customers... you are like a guest to him.
Anyways, these are my biggest reasons for using Authentic Canadian Tours for such long distance nature trips.
Angie and I have been on a number of trips with A.C.T. now. And we've made a number of friends through the tours too. Always nice to be out with a bunch of people who share a common passion for the natural world outside our door.
On this tour, there is an agenda to get the experience of what Amherst is all about and please click on this link here to see.
I hope you clicked on the link as now I am about to lightly touch upon a couple of the spots.
The radio station is a wonderful visit. The people who run it are awesome. It is the smallest radio station in Canada and it sits on a dairy farm. I've never been in a radio station before; so to visit the smallest one in our country was pretty cool and unique.
The museum is interesting, get some history on the island, view old photos and artifacts. There usually are some handmade local crafts available for purchase. Someone bought a lovely Great Blue Heron painting on one of our trips. Angie and I purchased a one of a kind bird house.
As you travel the island, be on the look out for wildlife. We had the pleasure of seeing a few Snowy Owls on our trip in January of this year. And around this time last year, being our first trip to Amherst we were fortunate to see a Northern Saw-whet Owl, a Long-eared Owl and a Short-eared Owl in the famous "Owl Woods". A lot of Rough-legged Hawks may be seen along the roads too. Even as we entered Owl Woods, it was easy enough to get side-tracked by the welcoming mob of Black-capped Chickadees greeting us along the first stretch of the trail. Just put out your hand with some seed in it and seconds later you have a Chickadee or two in your palm as well. Who wouldn't love that?
If Angie and I didn't already have previous plans, we'd be on this trip once again. But I thought I would put this out there to all my debating friends. It's worth it to go for the experience to this small island in eastern Ontario with Authentic Canadian Tours.
Angie did some wonderful blogs from our previous trips there. Check 'em out here and here. And if you are on Facebook, please visit A.T.C.'s page here.
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