dora the explorer: change islands

so i decided to take a 'non-racing' vacation for a change. can't think of the last time i did that. seriously! i booked a flight to change island, newfoundland, and went out to visit my kindred running spirits, dave and tone, for a few days mid-august. after a right kerfuffle trying to get to the airport (homeys' alarm didn't go off), i managed to check-in and get to my seat, AND with enough time to buy a starbucks. the weather leaving toronto was in the 30's. when i landed in gander 5 hours later, it was around 10, and it was raining. i think i was the only idiot getting off the plane who was happy with this! tone met me, and we headed to the nearest thrift store to grab me a couple of long-sleeved shirts (almost cheaper than the starbucks). after a cool 20 minute ferry ride, we were in the small fishing community of change islands. dave and tones' house is right on the ocean.

here is a view from their kitchen window

after sitting most of the day, i really needed to stretch out my legs. so we threw on a couple of layers, and took off for the squid jigger trail. only 6km long, but absolutely beautiful. lots of sweet technical sections, and almost always a view of the ocean - with the accompanying sound effects of course!

and so after a great run, and some fresh salmon and homemade soup for dinner, i crashed for 11 hours. guess the sea air was good for sleeping!!

the next morning was kind of rainy so we decided to do a little tour of the island. trekked down a dirt/grass road and checked out a neighbours place that was being restored. LOTS of wild blueberries everywhere!! did another run/hike on the squid jigger in the afternoon, and hit a house party later in the evening. no, i didn't get screeched or kiss a cod!

here's dave and tone

here's tone picking blueberries!

thursday was a beauty day, so we packed some food and headed out for a hike. we parked at the united church cemetary and started out along the coast from hawkins cove. it was soooo beautiful. one of the things on my list was to go skinny dipping in the atlantic. which we did! it wasn't actually that bad - refreshing as dave put it (we made him go in first). we explored along black long point, bishops cove and ended up at deep cove. after losing tone, and then doing some minor cliff climbing, we eventually made it back out to the highway 5 hours later. what a perfect way to spend time with my 2 bestest buddies!

our skinny dippin beach