Last updated 18 November 2007

The occasional ramblings and musings of Captain Barefoot on the subject of nudism/naturism, impractical fashion, maintaining this web site, or whatever else comes to mind.

Going off piste ...

I'm sometimes asked whether I ever go on naturist holidays to places other than Greece.  Well, disloyal though it may seem, for the last couple of years I've made it to other countries, though it didn't stop a visit to Greece both years too. 

Last year the Captain and the Captain's Mate saved up and flew off to Club Orient, St Martin.  It was fantastic.  (Though expensive).  You stay in a chalet, and you can either cater for yourselves (the on-site shop, where most of the customers go naked, is perfectly adequate) or take meals on site.  No need to wear clothes anywhere on the site.  Apparently, some visitors manage to stay naked from the moment they arrive until they leave a fortnight later.  Even the roads are covered in sand so it is easy to walk everywhere barefoot.  And there is the most wonderful golden, sandy beach, sheltered by a barrier reef from the worst of the Atlantic swell. 

Among delights to be sampled are the nude cruise on a catamaran to a nearby uninhabited island - it included a high quality lunch served by the boat's captain who was wearing a bow tie (and nothing else), and a hilarious session where all the participants were covered in mud - it's good for the skin, apparently.  Morning walks, as the sun rises, in the nude along the entire length of Orient Bay beach (though as other resorts wake up we were encouraged to remain within Club O).  Dining and dancing in the nude in the restaurant!  It was a fantasy fortnight.  We'll be saving up to go back!

This year we made it to one of the naturist resorts in Corsica, set on what is claimed to be the longest (official) naturist beach in Europe.  We stayed in a self-catering chalet at Bagheera, which is also an enormous naturist camp site.  The accommodation was nothing like the class of Club O.  But the beach was superb.  A walk to the far end of the marked naturist section, and back, took the best part of an hour and a half. 

Men's legs (aka What Not to Wear Part 2)

Following from my theme of impractical swimming garb, this seems to be the summer when men's shorts have finally descended below the knee. So now we have the sight of men in summer clothing with only their calves exposed. They look ridiculous.

Tennis players are at least partly to blame. Rafael Nadal appeared at the French Open in trousers (I won't call them shorts) that extended to only a few inches above his ankles.

What is the point? Surely the idea of shorts is to stay cool (in the temperature sense) in hot weather. Are we now so conservative that we can't stand the sight of men's legs?

Conversely, women's summer clothing has continued to go the other way, with some pants and skirts now so short you wonder why they bother (yet I bet the girls wouldn't be seen on a naturist beach).

Footnote

Oddly, the conservative trend doesn't extend to footwear. I've seen more young men on London's streets in open sandals and flip flops this soggy summer than I can remember (some of them also wearing the ridiculous long shorts mentioned above). Personally I have no objection, and like wearing sandals in warm weather if I can't be Barefoot. But the trend - apparently that knees should be covered but feet exposed - defies any logic!

Top travel websites

Captain Barefoot's Naturist Guide found its way into a listing of readers' favourite travel web sites in The Times Online in December 2006.  Thanks to Lawrence Thorington-Jones for the nomination!

What Not to Wear

A year or so ago the Captain had the not wholly agreeable experience of spending a late afternoon on a textile beach having just arrived at a favourite Greek island (there being no time to go to the nearest naturist one before sunset).  It was a while since I'd had to bother with a costume, but it was either that or a trip to the shops with the Captain's Mate.  After a hot day's travelling it seemed worth the sacrifice for a swim!

Have you seen the latest beach fashions for men?  My ancient and ill-fitting Speedo swimming trunks (yes, I confess to possessing a pair) looked very much out of place and attracted some odd looks.  All the men and boys were wearing "swim shorts" - generally speaking just like ordinary long shorts - with the legs extending to just above the knees, and in some cases lower.  When they emerged from the water they were flopping damply around the wearers' legs in a way that looked uncomfortable to say the least.  How such an impractical garment could become fashionable is beyond me.  Of course, it's not usually a problem for us nudists ...!

Copycats laid bare

I suppose imitation is the best form of flattery.  But I must confess to a certain irritation when text and photos lifted from this site appear on other sites - even if they are presented as promoting naturism.  The least they could do is ask permission, or even acknowledge the source.

A few years ago my attention was drawn to a site - beautifully put together, if you like that sort of thing - with greyscale images of nude women in the background - which reproduced in full the entire text of the site.  On that occasion I complained to the host and the site was withdrawn.  The current ones can be found easily enough using the main search engines - but I'm not going to link to them from here.

Yahoo Geocities

In 2006, after 10 years of being happily hosted, Cap'n Barefoot was unceremoniously dumped from the Yahoo Geocities hosting site without notice.  The excuse, when I enquired, was said to be nothing to do with the site's content - but anyway, the upshot was that the site went offline for a few days and had to be relaunched - at some expense - with a new host and domain, and without even the luxury of a "This site has moved" page.

Looking back on it I now think it was a blessing in disguise.  The move provided the incentive to update and redesign the site - a fairly creative activity, in fact. And hosting and domain costs have been more than met by introducing advertising in what I hope is not an overly intrusive way.