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A Long Summer in the Wilds, 2001
Having taken early retirement from teaching and having no ties I am
able to make the most of the summer. Over the years I have developed a
love for the wilderness and would much prefer to watch the sun setting
warmed by a camp-fire, wake up in the morning with a magnificent view
of the mountains through the door of my tiny tent and take a brazing
swim in a remote lake than stay in a four star hotel in some tourist
trap and fight for space on an overcrowded beach. People often ask if I
get lonely travelling on my own but I have never found that a problem
in the wilderness. On your own you actually talk to people you meet
rather than pass them by which usually happens with groups. I find I
often spend a few days with another individual or group before going
our separate ways. For someone on their own the loneliest place is in a
crowd! After spending much of the summer of 2000 walking in the Sierra
Mountains of California I decided to spend 2001 a little closer to home
and split my time between canoe-touring and backpacking. Paddling a
Canadian canoe through lake and river systems in uninhabited
countryside gives plenty of opportunities for the naturist. It is
almost always possible find places to swim and camp without clothes and
in remote waters it is often possible to paddle
naked teens (provided that
water conditions don�t require buoyancy aid to be worn!). In hot
weather backpacking in the mountains can also provide plenty of
naturist opportunities with bubbling streams with rock pools to cool
off in, sandy beaches by distant lakes and wild campsites miles away
from the nearest house. Although some people do walk naked in remote
areas it is not really comfortable to do so with a heavy rucksack and
it is not so easy to cover up if you need to avoid offending anyone you
meet. Nowadays when both canoeing and mountain walking you meet plenty
of people who wouldn�t call themselves naturists but who strip off to
swim or sunbathe. On your own you see a lot more wildlife than in a
group, the canoe being a particularly good platform for bird watching.
Shortly after Easter I took my Canadian Canoe down to Portugal and
spent 12 days canoeing down the Tagus from just west of the Spanish
Border to just east of Lisbon. For the first few days the paddling is
along reservoirs through wild uninhabited gorges. The seclusion was
only broken by an occasional fisherman, from the portages past the dams
and from the trains that crawl along the rail-line, which follows the
nude beach river teen
pictures. (Rail but no roads!)
Once past the last dam the river flows
freely to the sea. The flow varying from a trickle to a flood depending
on the amount of water allowed through the reservoir dams. (The first
time I paddled this river I camped on an island about 10 ft above the
water level and was woken in the night by water flowing through my
tent!). Gradually the country became gentler passing through farmland
with the occasional small town. As the coast is approached there are
increasing signs of industrialisation but the only thing impacting
noticeably is the extraction of gravel and sand extraction from the
riverbed.
The main canoeing problem can be fighting your way into
the prevailing westerly winds but on this trip the winds were light and
plenty of sun gave ideal conditions a naturist canoe trip. The power of
the river was brought home to me when I found that winter floods had
washed almost all of a tree-covered island where thousands of Little
Egrets, Cattle Egrets and Spoonbills used to roost away.
Before
returning home I spent another week exploring a large reservoir higher
up the Tagus in the Extramadura region of Spain. In this remote area I
saw at least ten different species of Bird of Prey Continued on p5
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