Monday 4 MayWe had hired a car for a few days in order to see the rest of the island and this was the day I collected it. The day was mostly spent touring the old capital but we also visited San Tomas and, more importantly, Binigaus beach which is generally accepted as a naturist beach. We did not stay very long as it was getting late, but I still managed just over an hour comfortably naked on the beach and in the water.
I would probably not bother to go back to Binigaus as it had nothing that Son Bou did not have and, quite frankly, I preferred Son Bou.
Tuesday 5 MayI woke early to the sound of bird song and snoring. Carole was dead to the world and (after a little more web research) it seemed like a good idea to try an early morning revisit to Barranc de Son Boter to look for the cache I had not found.
It was about 06:00 when I left the apartment, the whole resort still appeared to be asleep so I just walked the 100 yards or so to the car dressed as I had been in the flat (that is to say, not). I drove to the start of the Cami de Cavalls out of town to save myself fifteen minutes in areas where nudity would not feel right. This time, knowing the farm house was unoccupied I was able to stay naked all the way to the cache site where a ten minutes search turned up the cache. (It had fallen from its hiding place and took a bit of finding in the undergrowth). I had amended my route slightly to avoid the most heavily overgrown section of the path by walking along a field margin just outside the woods, this also had the benefit of keeping me in the sunshine, lovely.
Once I had found the cache I decided to explore the ruins a bit. They are not big and the ground level was a bit unstable and showed evidence of cattle being stabled there however a few minutes casting around the undergrowth turned up the stairs to the upper level, where I could not resist a photo or two.
Once my thirst for exploration was sated I headed back for breakfast. I was able to stay naked until about ten minutes short of the town when I dressed as I could hear a pick-up coming up the track. From that point I stayed dressed as there were others on the path walking or jogging. I had been naked for 98 minutes in the early morning sunshine; I could get used to these easy temperatures.
After a leisurely breakfast (no reaction from Carole to me not dressing after my shower) we set off to visit Cala Galdana, a very pretty cove a few miles west of where we were staying. The resort is far more developed than Son Bou but Carole wanted to sit on a different beach and I was very keen to have a look for a nearby “earth cache”, which despite being listed in October had not yet been logged. Could I really be on for a first to fine log more than six months after the cache was listed? Having found a parking place we wandered into a nearby café for a coffee and then had a walk through the shops where I found some comfortable, cheap, ventilated trainers to replace the expensive Merrell sandals I'd trashed the day before.
Once on the beach, oiled up and settled down, Carole dismissed me to go and look for the cache which is in the next cove to the east, Cala Mitjana. To get there I first had to climb the stairs up the cliff face and at the top realised I was close to a cache hidden in a look out over the bay. It would have been rude not to look for the cache when I was that close so I wandered down to the viewing point only to discover it was empty. No one around (although there were villas all around none had windows looking my way). I stripped and a short naked hunt turned up the cache. Log signed and cache replaced I decided that leaving the spot naked was not smart. It must have been all of three seconds after I dressed when an older couple arrived to take in the view...
The route to Cala Mitjana was the Cami de Cavalls again and I was hoping it would be suitable for an SN walk. As soon as I was out of the buildings I stripped off. Two minutes later I dressed at the sound of approaching people. Once past I stripped again, only to repeat the exercise a few minutes later. The undressing and dressing cycle continued until, after about 5 cycles, I got bored and just stayed dressed.
The walk was delightful, just spoiled by the feeling that I was over dressed. So, when I spotted a path off to the right marked as being a view point I took it and promptly stripped off, hoping this path would be quieter. It was and I was able to stay naked and unseen to the headland where I grabbed a few pictures of the view and a few more of the naked monster...
I walked back to the main Cami de Cavalls, where I dressed expecting the path to be as busy as it had been previously; it was. However, I was able to collect some information required for the cache before I reached the beach.
I should explain earth caches; these do not have anything physically hidden but are spots where geology can be seen, typically they require the cacher to answer some geology questions about the location to the satisfaction of the cache owner before they can log the cache. For this cache I was going to have to swim out of the bay a little to look at the caves to the east.
At the beach there were a few people around, I'd guess at a dozen, maybe fifteen. The best place to enter the water for the caves was the east side and, as I arrived I watched an obviously British retired couple set up camp right where I wanted to be. The chap remained fully dressed apart from his sandals and socks, which he removed and placed carefully on a large rock. His wife spent about ten minutes doing the most convoluted towel dance I've ever seen to get into a one piece swimming cozzie that looked like a modern interpretation of something the Victorians might have worn.
I had no choice so I simply stood the far side of a large rock from them and stripped off. This put me in full view of the rest of the beach (there was no one there naked). I was just placing my clothes in my bag to stop them blowing off the rock when Mrs Brit walked past on her way to the water. She did not seem to notice I was there, let alone how I was dressed as she got into the sea and started to swim out. I soon followed her into the water but was careful not to follow her directly in case that was misconstrued. Fortunately she soon turned across the bay allowing me clear access to the caves. I spent about 20 minutes in the water collecting the information I needed and just enjoying the freedom and then as I went to get out Mrs Brit turned up again. I allowed her to get out and clear before leaving the water myself. No one seemed the least bit fussed as I stood and dried off while noting down my observations.
I decided I was not going to dress to walk back to Cala Galdana. Instead I left my clothes safely in my bag but got my camera ready hoping for a few good photo opportunities on the way back. As I was walking back to the steps up from the beach a couple with a young child started down them, to avoid a run in with over protective parents I kept a large gap and only headed up the stairs once they were clear. As I was halfway up, another family started down. Oh well, it was their choice so I just kept going. Again, they were Brits and I got a bit of a “look” from the Mum but my cheerful “Hola” was returned by everyone in the group so I guess it was not too much of a shock to their system.
At the top of the stairs I paused to put on footwear then set off to return to Cala Galdana grabbing a few pictures of the bay before I left. This was my favourite of the batch:
The next pair of walkers I met stood on the seaward side of the path and gazed resolutely at the water until I had passed... Hmmm. I found myself chuckling at his behaviour and more resolved than ever to stay naked until I reached the buildings.
I pause again to grab a few self-portraits at the path junction to the viewing point I'd visited earlier then continued in the 22 degree warmth revelling in the light breeze on my skin.
A little further on, I stopped for another set of pics. This is by no means the best of them but amused me because, as you can see, a couple of walker came past as I was taking the shots, (they were just walking into view as the last one of the set was taken).
The whole walk back to Galdana was similar, on route I passed around 30 people and had no hostile reactions, just the couple who refused to look around and a short way before the end a couple who came up behind me, exclaimed “Oh! He's naked” and then turned back a few yards only continuing once they thought I'd gone. I could not resist stopping a couple more times to see I they would get brave enough to go past. Over the next ten minutes or so I saw them three more times, each time they stopped or turned back to avoid me. Am I
really that scary?
As planned, I dressed just short of the built up area and walked the last stretch of the path back to the road. Here I noticed a path to another cliff top look out over the beach. The path was about 100 yards long and took me to an area around 10 yards by 2 yards with a fabulous view over the bay. When I realised that there was no one else in sight I could not resist grabbing a couple of quick pictures, this was my favourite one:
Once I’d grabbed the pics I dressed and walked back to the top of the cliff stairs. Here I could see that there was no one coming up and nobody behind me so I decided to enjoy the climb down as I should have dressed for the ascent. I was hoping I would be able to get into the water for a quick swim to cool down. However, a group of people arrived and, given that this is a town beach it seemed inappropriate to walk past them naked so I dressed.
On getting back to Carole I dropped off my bag of stuff, put on swimming trunks (yuk!) and wandered into the water to cool down. Once deep enough to swim the trunks came off and were simply wrapped around my wrist while I enjoyed a 20 minute skinny dip. There were a couple of others swimming a little further offshore than most and I soon discovered that at least two of them were wearing their cozzies in a similar fashion to me. Despite that, I saw no sense in rocking the boat by walking out of the water naked. Instead I dressed, grabbed my bag and wandered off to buy a couple of cold beers; earning a good supply of brownie points when I passed one to the boss.
As it started to cool down Carole decided she wanted to stretch her legs before we drove back to Son Bou. We returned everything to the car and walked on along the Cami de Cavalls to the west. The path was very busy with people walking in the opposite direction. We walked for about half an hour, reaching the first lookout point before we turned back. No opportunity for walking naked there; Carole would have been too concerned.
To be continued…
