Day 2: Discovering The Rock

Interesting fact: Deer Lake actually has no deers at all. Go figure.

I woke up to a rainy morning, but right in front of the house was the Humber river, which leads to the Atlantic Ocean. Definitely not something you see every day.

Ahead of us was a 1.5 hour drive to our secret cabin. Unfortunately, Peter only had one awful, twangy, I lost everything in my life country song CD which we listened to on repeat the entire way. So in actuality, the drive was three weeks long.

We finally arrive (with my ears bleeding) and Ivan’s place is the bomb. Nestled in between Sop’s Arm and Jackson’s Arm (does this mean we will be fishing in an armpit??) we are right on the water, looking out at the bay.

We unpack, fire up the wood stove and settle in. I’m informed, sadly, that there will be no fishing today. Florence is wreaking havoc, the winds are high and the white caps are out in full force. So unless we want to swim with the fishes, we’ll be land locked.

But when life gives you lemons… you take a road trip and go exploring!!!!

First a quick stop at the harbour to look at the abandoned boats and shrimp factories.

Then a tour around the bay stopping at Wick’s Point.

My travel advice: Take the road less travelled. There’s far more to discover than what you read about.

Sure, everyone wants to see Gross Morne and St. Johns. But then you would miss out on visiting cute little cottages on Cooney’s arm (what’s with all the arms in Newfoundland??), where the water is so dark blue and clear at the same time, where you can see the cove opening up to the ocean, and where the wind blows the white caps and you can see the mist in the distance.

Everyone who lives here has a pile of firewood bigger than their actual house. I actually started to get the fire sweats thinking about how long it would take me to burn all of the stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of wood.

You would also miss out on a 25 km detour, up the side of a mountain leading to a giant reservoir at the top. It is so windy up there you feel like a feather being blown around by a leaf blower. The wind literally tossed me around like a rag doll. At one point I was running down a path and got pushed into a fence instead.

Some of the bays come with a warning to be careful not to be blown away. I apparently didn’t heed those too well.

The Newfoundland landscape is breathtaking. It’s called The Rock because it literally is one big solid rock. But it doesn’t stop the trees from breaking through, taking root and holding on. As you climb higher and higher you see mountains of green, dotted with lakes of deep blue, the ocean on one side and more mountains in the distance. At some point you stop taking pictures because you can’t do it justice.

In the meantime Crazy Ivan has prepped all of our rods and lures for tomorrow and found time to make some homemade chicken stew.

The night ended with a visit to the neighbour for some homemade goodies. Apparently they like it when you ask for seconds, so I’m pretty sure they loved me after I had 5 pieces of banana bread.

Tomorrow: The ‘Cod’ Father

Watch the full video here: Discovering The Rock