That's a good target, Davie, in that it feels achievable to varying and hopefully increasing degrees. Let us know about any new or interesting places and experiences you find.
I must give you an update on my 'secret' wood. I hiked up there a couple of days ago in rather chilly, windy weather to see if it was any less flooded.
After a relatively dry spell and a run of warm days, it was very much better drained. I made a much longer hike that my usual approach to see if I could enter the wood from the opposite side. Across several large fields and tracks and precariously leaping a couple of ditches, I approached the little wood and found a way in stooping under some fallen branches several times to enter from the opposite side. What I discovered was two things: First that, as predicted, our heavy clay soil was better drained than at my last waterlogged visit, but draining very slowly. The large areas that had become pools and ponds, whilst now empty, were a sludgy mess of mud and leafmould and quite treacherous to cross - you could do it but you had to be very careful not to go boot deep in the muddier patches in something that could easily have been found on a potter's wheel! There were still pools and this one was quite deep and I thought it was quite gnarly and rather menacing as if the abode of malign spirits. What do you think? The picture looks greener and brighter than it actually was and the camera doesn't see very far down into the dark waters at the bottom but you get the idea I trust.
So due to the mud etc, it made it very difficult to find somewhere to strip off without getting wet and muddy.
Second, it was very difficult to negotiate the little wood. There are no real reference points once you get in, so navigation is hard and I did get lost at one point, being out of GPS contact in the dense undergrowth. Negotiation was rendered extremely difficult by the sheer amount of nettles that had sprung up in the weeks since I was last there. This picture was taken at the outer edge of the wood and is not nettles but of you can imagine the same sort of terrain with shoulder high nettles, you will get the gist of why the little wood has become rather hazardous for naked people. So once again I have had to rein in my ambitions that this should be my secret place, within reasonable walking distance of home, to cavort freely naked.
I did find, that at one edge of the wood, there was a little 'alcove' in the trees bordering a field of corn. It was not in plain sight of anyone or anywhere other than more fields although it was a field path and therefore might have had other hikers approach. I stood there, outside the edge of the wood, in the rather chilly breeze and contemplated getting naked there for a while. As I had been out for quite some time now, I decided against it but I did, as a gesture to naturism, drop my trousers and lift my shirt to let the breeze caress (or buffet in this case!) my body for a couple of minutes. Not properly naked and certainly not free but appropriate to the moment.
I then made my way across two more fields and discovered there was no way off them in reasonable distance so I had to go back to the wood and go through it again, getting lost for a second time, until I emerged one field away (with a suitable gap through) from the little bridge that gave me access across the main ditch, back onto the more well trodden path (by lots of casual walkers, often with dogs of course) which was the track home about 30 mins away.
So once again, guys I am sorry to bring you news of another abortive bit of naturism - but that's how it is for me. Next time, I shall go on a hot day and find the little alcove in the trees again and do a bit of naked sunbathing.
Our government it seems is about to relax the epidemic rules a bit and allow travelling to places of exercise including parks. This should allow me to try a couple of the other woodlands I have been naked in before, a few miles away. However, one has to be careful because these are public woodlands too. I am sure that many people still off work, with no spare money for entertainment, wil thesel be seeking free exercise in country places too.
John
