My younger sisters and I had such a good time today! We bought cheap dinghy boats from Wal-Mart and went out on Rocky Pond in Paradise, Newfoundland. We even had a little BBQ along the coastline!
Inflating the dinghies took some time, but thankfully they came with a pump, which saved some time. Once our dinghies were ready to go, we stashed our other supplies in the bushes, put our dinghies in the water, and took turns climbing into them and leaving the shoreline.
Although I grew up in a fishing town and spent quite a bit of time in boats during the summer months, I’ll be honest and say that I have very little experience with paddle boats. How hard could it be? Well, it took some time to figure out a good rhythm and flow with the ores, but I eventually got the hang of it.
We successfully made it to the first little island and laughed as we tried to dock our boats. We were greeted by two beautiful eggs that appeared to belong to a loon. They were definitely incubating well in the sunshine today! We didn’t want to disturb the eggs or cause any stress to their mommy loon, so after taking a couple of quick photos, we got back into the dingies and set off again across Rocky Pond.
We had a rough time trying to port on the second smaller island. One of the dinghies started blowing away and we had to chase after it. It was hilarious. It’s so hard to move your muscles whilst laughing… So, retrieving the dinghy took some time. My younger sister ended up going for a swim in order to catch the dinghy and returned safely to shore with it. What a trooper!
We had so much fun paddling around the pond and checking out those little islands. It was also a great arm and shoulder workout. Once we made it back across the pond, my sister started the BBQ so we could have some lunch. We were all feeling hungry after all that rowing.
After lunch, we deflated our dinghies, packed up our gear, and headed back to the car. We took a brief trip out to Topsail Bluff to enjoy the view of the Atlantic Ocean and Topsail Beach. This is definitely a location to check out if you ever plan a trip here to Newfoundland. What a beautiful view.
Whoa Dana 