Parque Natural Corralejo, Fuerteventura
September 2015
[my post about naked running in Fuerteventura warranted two blogs; this is the dunes post; see Naked Run 6.1: Fuerteventura (Beach) for my blog on naked running on the beach]
While my hotel in Fuerteventura provided direct naked access to the adjacent naturist beach for my daily naked sunrise/sunset runs, I had to don my running shorts to cross the busy road to access the seemingly never-ending dunes. A short walk of five minutes afforded me access to a stunning landscape of sand, scrub, seashells and lots of creatures.
Running naked through this arid landscape was incredibly different to running along the refreshing sea: there was no water to cool my feet or lower the temperature, the cool sea breeze had been transformed into a hot, dry breeze by the scorching landscape, the foot hazards were multiplied and the undulating terrain turned it all into a hill run.
It soon became apparent that barefoot wasn’t going to work in this case. What appeared to be soft sand from a distance was really two distinctly different surfaces: the first was soft sand that had collected around desert scrub and brush plants – mostly prickly; the second was where these plants weren’t growing the surface was made of what looked like soft, delicate sand from a distance but in reality was a hard surface of nearly fossilised sand and seashell. Up close, this was stunning. Like a natural concrete surface. Unfortunately, the beauty aside, this surface was not easy to run on. It was hard and the shells would crack and break under pressure, making the foot-fall on the surface not at all agreeable, if not a little painful. After attempting barefoot for a few minutes, I returned to my running shoes and set off.
This wasn’t a race. The surface changed quickly between the two ecosystems. It was more like a hilly obstacle course. What a stunning landscape, though! And, it would appear, there were creatures everywhere. Of all apparent sizes. Tracks left behind were so frequent and numerous it was hard to comprehend why nothing was visible during the day, now, while I was running. It was humbling to be running in the footsteps of so many creatures, large and small – some of the unidentified prints were surprisingly large. While I was alone, I was also one of many living things dashing across the landscape.
Naked Run Facts
Date: 06-11 September 2015 (two individual runs)
Location: Parque Natural Corralejo, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain
Time of Day: 17:00-18:00
Air Temperature: 25c-27c
Conditions: partly cloudy and windy
Run Length: short, under 2k
Duration: not measured
Barefoot or Shoes: shoes
Other Nearby Naked Running Sites
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