some memories from Florida Young Naturists’s Spring Bash and nature trail at Sunny Sands Resort

I thought I’d skip a report on this event entirely due to lack of photography, but when I mentioned it in the previous post, I realized I had to share with the world at least some of my good memories – so here are a few words about the Florida Young Naturists‘ Spring Bash and its venue, Sunny Sands Resort. It’s a spacious resort, mostly oriented to permanent or part-time residents; FYN certainly changes its pace! There are some basic amenities typical to a naturist resort, such as a pool, a hot tub, volleyball court; the restaurant seems to be open only during such events. The Spring Bash itself was very well organized, with numerous fun activities, seminars and workshops hosted by the participants: e.g., capoeira and acro-yoga (by yours truly), salsa, juggling, fire-spinning, discussions on polyamory… There were professional masseurs too, and needless to say they were very much in demand – one had to sign up for a session. I got probably the best deep tissue massage I had ever had (and to add a cherry on the cake, the masseur was my namesake!) All these activities were free, and there was a good sense of community and active participation. In the evening there was live music, and the band got naked too. When we gathered around the fire pit at night, one guy started singing a Swahili song, and then taught us all the chorus (which alternated between male and female voices) – it was a beautiful experience! Thus, it was a very busy event, but you could always leave for a walk on the nature trail if you wanted some quiet time.

As it often happens, naturist events and venues have prohibitive or very restrictive photo policies, so I cannot provide a full report from FYN Spring Bash in the same sense, as I do from Burning Man, for example. But here are some photos from Sunny Sands’ nature trail, which is worth a mention too (even with a risk of confusing naturists and naturalists 😀 )

woodpecker 0000 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

Woodpeckers seemed to be particularly active at the time.

woodpecker 0001 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

This one literally stuffed his beak with larvae (probably saving them for the chicks).

woodpecker 0002 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

But I’m not sure they’d touch this hairy caterpillar.

caterpillar 0000 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

There used to be a pond of a decent size, but most of the water has vanished now.

crane 0000 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

But what’s left still provides home for water lilies, frogs

crane 0001 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

and a family of cranes!

crane 0002 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

I’ve never seen wild cranes so close, though these ones are clearly used to human presence.

crane 0003 Sunny Sands Resort, Florida, USA

(And perhaps it makes them feel safer that the humans around them are naturally naked :-))

Playalinda beach… after Florida Young Naturists’ Spring Bash

Playalinda is one of the few official naturist beaches in Florida and is certainly one of the best overall. I visited it last April as part of the group outing at the Naked Spring Bash of Florida Young Naturists.

naturist 0001 Playalinda beach, Florida, USA

It’s a great beach with plenty of space whether you are with a big group or want to chill quietly enjoying the sound of waves.

view 0000 Playalinda beach, Florida, USA

If you want to enjoy the waves in a more active manner, Playalinda is known to have a pretty good swell for surfing, but it wasn’t the case at the time of my visit. However, the waves were perfect for body surfing.

naturist 0000 Playalinda beach, Florida, USA

Naked body surfing is as natural as it gets when it comes syncing with the ocean and feeling it power!

Unlike the urban Haulover Beach in Miami, where we went after FYN Spring Bash 4 years ago, Playalinda is set in a natural surrounding of the Cape Canaveral National Seashore.

naturist 0002 Playalinda beach, Florida, USA

Nudists usually congregate at the section near the farthest parking of Playalinda beach (and as the commentator indicated below, just a little further north there is an officially clothing-optional Apollo beach),

view 0001 Playalinda beach, Florida, USA

but even from there you can see well the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility… Those were the days, when you could sunbathe naked and watch the shuttle lift off into space! Nowadays you may be lucky to see the launch of a rocket by SpaceX though. So, next time I’ll try to time my visit well (and check the surf forecast too).

 

secluded spot at Key Biscayne (Miami)

naturist 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Welcome to Miami! And if you think that glamorous and crowded Miami Beach is the only way to enjoy the tropical seaside, you are wrong. Key Biscayne island lies south-east of Miami Downtown, close enough to see its skyline,

view 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

but wild and remote enough to enjoy a small secluded beach with barely anyone else in sight, and totally naked if you will. (By the way, the first photo and the one below were taken at the same spot, just at different times of the day, so you can see how tides change.)

naturist 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

The northeast point of Key Biscayne, right by the fossilized reef, has a history of nude recreation, but it’s not an official nudist beach, while Virginia Key just north of it did have an official nudist beach until 1980’s. The place is known as Bear Cut beach. Maybe “bare” would be more appropriate than “bear” here, though far not all visitors bare it all, and some – actually nothing at all: a couple of fishermen were covered entirely, face included.

fisherman 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Besides humans, we also saw quite a few animals of the rare kind that actually wear something:

hermit crab 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

hermit crabs were all over the place there, from the size of a nail to the size of a palm. And luckily for them, there seemed to be no shortage of shells of various sizes.

hermit crab 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USAhermit crab 0002 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

It was nice to wander through the mangroves and observe nature.

naturist 0003 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Besides numerous crabs, we saw quite a few crab spiders (aka spinybacked orb-weavers).

crab spider spinybacked orb-weaver 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Some of them built their webs quite high up,

crab spider spinybacked orb-weaver 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

with an impressive span between the trees.

crab spider spinybacked orb-weaver 0002 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

I found these spiders pretty too, and hopefully there aren’t readers of this blog with arachnophobia :O (Does anyone know its scientific name btw? And if you like spiders, check this post out!)

spider 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Well, the sight of ibises would probably be more commonly appreciated 🙂

ibis 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

As we walked at the fossilized reef,

naturist 0002 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

we also saw a heron. It didn’t seem to be bothered by our presence. I got pretty good shots of it resting,

heron 0002 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

hunting

heron 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

and flying.

heron 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

We also saw flocks of pelicans pass by,

pelican 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

but only a couple of them rested nearby.

pelican 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Our neighbor at the cove where we stayed was an iguana.

iguana 0002 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

It  was climbing trees,

iguana 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

and Lee Roy followed its example.

naturist 0004 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Although majority of trees there are represented by various mangrove species, we also saw papayas

papaya 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

and coconut palms.

coconut palm-tree 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Too bad none of them had ripe fruit. These ants though seemed to be excited about something at the tip of the mangrove root, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. (BTW I later discovered that honey from mangrove blossom has a very particular fruity flavor, make sure to try it when you get a chance!)

ants on mangrove root 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Plants and animals weren’t the only thing that drew our attention though:

trash 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

unfortunately, there was quite a lot of trash too. Most of it was probably washed off from the sea. On the way out, we collected plastic bags and bottles from the cove where we stayed.

mangroves view 0002 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Some of the bigger bits of trash though found their new life as sitting surfaces among mangroves. That’s a good way of recycling too!

mangroves view 0003 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

It also turned out to be a great place for snorkeling. I hoped to see manatees,

seaweed & corals 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

but I had to be satisfied with their potential feeding ground only, as some parts of the seafloor were covered with seaweed.

seaweed & corals 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

I was also happy to see that despite this place is known for its fossilized reef from several thousands years ago, there is some new coral growth – hopefully there will be a new live coral reef sometime soon!

seaweed & corals 0002 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USAseaweed & corals 0003 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

I saw quite a lot of fish, e.g. young barracudas (?)

fish 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

and a stingray.

ray 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

There was a lot of small fish by the mangrove roots, confirming mangroves’ role as fish nurseries. Among the bigger fish, puffers were probably most common.

As you can see, the water is very clear there, and the seafloor is clean, but I did see some glass, so be careful when you wade.

hermit crab 0003 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Overall, it was amazing to see this pocket of wildlife right off Miami downtown, great for naturists and naturalists alike!

mangroves view 0001 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

As we were about to leave, this crab wanted to give us a good-bye hug… We weren’t quite sure.

crab 0000 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

We also had a small video shot for something very special – stay tuned for updates!

naturist 0005 Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

For now, just enjoy this view of Eddy’s jump split trying to bridge Miami downtown (on the left) with Miami Beach (on the right).

Haulover Beach

Haulover beach in Miami is  surely one of the busiest naturist beaches in the world, with reported million visitors a year. Tourists come year round and from all over the world, but I bet that New Yorkers are particularly common, considering that NYC – Miami area is by far the busiest air route in US in a “push to make South Florida New York’s sixth borough“. So I wasn’t too surprised when I stumbled upon a couple of friends from New York on my last trip there. (And that’s besides two other groups of NY friends who I knew were coming.)

naturist 0004 Haulover Beach, Miami, Florida, USA

Haulover is also one of the best organized beaches thanks to supporting organizations such as the B.E.A.C.H.E.S Foundation Institute and South Florida Free Beaches. They provide free brochures where you can read about naturist movement and activities in the area (also available online). They help to preserve this beach for naturist use, which often gets threatened given that this is one of the last undeveloped beachfront lands in Miami metropolitan area that are not part of state or national parks.

naturist 0005 Haulover beach, Miami, Florida, USA

At least for now, we’re safe to enjoy this beach as nature intended 🙂

At the same time, the beach has all basic facilities that you’d expect from an urban beach – restrooms, showers, drink water fountains, volleyball courts, food trucks, and of course lifeguards. Haulover beach is accessible, but after I was run over by car on my trip to Florida last year, my favorite way of getting to/from the beach was on Tam’s shoulders.

naturist 0002 Haulover Beach, Miami, Florida, USA

Guardhouses apparently also provide opportunity for exercising, at least according to Mat.

naturist 0003 Haulover Beach, Miami, Florida, USA

By the way, guardhouses in the clothing-optional section of the beach are painted pink, and yellow in the adjacent textile area – so, in case you go swimming along the beach it’s easy to figure out where should get off the water and return. And swimming is something you definitely should do at Haulover. The water is just perfect – clear and warm year round.

naturist 007 Haulover beach, Miami, Florida, USA

On my first visit to Haulover beach, which was with Joe and a whole bunch of people from  Florida Young Naturists event, besides having nice company at the beach, when we went for a swim we were accompanied by a school of small fish… Either they mistook us for their parents or thought we’d simply provide them shelter from sharks 🙂

In any case, they followed us for half an hour!

Sharks are sometimes spotted at Haulover too, of which you’ll be notified by the lifeguards, but it’s rarely a dangerous kind. From my experience, you should be more worried about cars in Florida…

I used to think that the only thing missing to make Haulover an all you-want-from-a-beach kind of place was surfable waves, but on my last trip I saw there a surfer too who managed to catch some waves – nothing spectacular, but he had fun. Well, I guess you can’t have it all perfect, but Haulover gets pretty to close to it when it comes to urban beaches. Altogether, it is a great place if you want to spend the day together with your friends in the altogether.

Κρυμμένος θησαυρός στην Αθήνα

 English

Η Αθήνα έχει μερικές απομονωμένες παραλίες που είναι γνωστό ότι ελκύουν γυμνιστές, αλλά η συγκεκριμένη  παραλία είναι ένα αληθινό κρυμμένος διαμάντι: είναι κοντά στο κέντρο της πόλης, αλλά σχεδόν αδύνατο να την βρει κάποιος  χωρίς να γνωρίζει την ακριβή τοποθεσία, και όμως αξίζει τον κόπο της αναζήτησης!

Λόγω της απομόνωσης της είναι φυσικά, είναι ένα εξαιρετικό μέρος για γυμνισμό.


Έμαθα για αυτή την παραλία  χάρη στο Νίκο από την Αθήνα, έναν από τους πιστούς αναγνώστες του blog μου.


Και μετά από δυο χρόνια που είχαμε γνωριστεί μέσω email, είχαμε επιτέλους την ευκαιρία να συναντηθούμε  τον περασμένο Σεπτέμβριο, και να μιλήσουμε για πολλά ενδιαφέροντα πράγματα. Στη συνέχεια, όμως, στο πνεύμα του «active naturists»: «λιγότερα λόγια, περισσότερο δράση»

Σκαρφαλώσαμε στα βράχια πάνω από το νερό.


Οι βράχοι είχαν φωτεινά χρώματα, κυρίως λιλά και απαλό πορτοκαλί . τα χρώμα των βράχων στο φως του ηλιοβασιλέματος συνέθεταν μια πανέμορφη εικόνα.
Στη συνέχεια, ανακαλύψαμε κολυμπώντας μια σπηλιά που δεν ήταν δυνατόν να φτάσει κάποιος από ξηράς. Αυτή η μικρή σπηλιά έμοιαζε με ένα χαμένο κρησφύγετο πειρατών. Δυστυχώς δεν είχα την αδιάβροχη φωτογραφική μηχανή μαζί μου οπότε δεν μπορώ να το δείξω εδώ.

Η νύχτα ήταν ακόμη πολύ ζεστή και έτσι μπορέσαμε να απολαύσουμε τη θέα της Αθήνας γυμνοί μέχρι αργά το βράδυ.

Greek text by Nicolas

beaches of Cape Fiolent (Crimea)

Русский

With this post I am starting a series of descriptions of Crimean beaches. Right on time if you plan some vacations in Ukraine after the final of the Euro Cup 2012 😉 Crimea is the main tourist destination in Ukraine with rich history and diverse nature, as well as several nudist beaches.

Cape Fiolent near Sevastopol provides some of the best beaches in the area thanks to the beautiful scenery and clear waters. Several years ago it was treated as a protected area, so the number of visitors was limited and one had to arrive in the morning and get tickets in a nearest pension or hotel, but in 2010 it was no longer the case, which I found rather unfortunate, even though it made it easier in terms of reaching the beach.

In any case, prepare to go down by hundreds of stairs, as the beaches are down by the steep cliffs.

If you go to the beach on the western side of Cape Fiolent, aka Tsar beach, you’ll be stunned with the vast views over the Black Sea.

At sunset, the colors are only more dramatic.

The nudist section is behind that big rock that you see in the center of the photo, but it is actually even marked as such (probably by its visitors themselves).

This beach is mostly pebbled, which is not the best option for sunbathing, so there was only more reason to go swimming. Luckily, I had my waterproof camera too, I was surprised to find rich underwater life.

Most of the rocks are covered by green, red and brown algae and moss animals (bryozoans).

And I’ve never seen that many hermit crabs as there.

Of course they were hiding in shells and were not eager to pose before my camera whatsoever.

But I was able to get a comb jelly photographed, also a relatively rare but beautiful sight; while moving, it created shiny multicolor waves at the edges of its body.

If you go to the beach on the eastern side of Cape Fiolent, aka Yashma [jasper] beach, the views are even more picturesque,

with a small monastery on the left.

Probably it was them who put a big cross on the small rocky island right in front of the beach.

Given a conservative stance of both Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches (I don’t know to which one the monastery belongs), I hope they don’t mind that part of the beach is by default clothing-optional. Actually, I was so inspired by the view with the cross, I felt like I could walk on water!

OK, I’ll have to tell you my secret, there was a barely submerged rock a few meters away from the shore.

And this is how the beach looks like from that island with the cross.

The unofficial nudist again hides is protected by the rocks and has a sign.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the only sign there. I saw also another custom-made sign, or rather obscene homophobic warning (this time not only in Russian but in English as well), which was apparently painted, erased and repainted a few times. Hope it didn’t represent an ongoing ‘battle’ between different beach visitors and was rather a flick by a single individual idiot.

In any case, whenever I was at that spot, it all seemed very peaceful.

Further behind another set of rocks, accessible only by water, there was a place where fresh water was coming down by the rocks covering them with a thin layer. Useful if you decide to camp there, or at least to refresh.

But I wasn’t the only one who leaned against the rocks there.

Even further away from the beach, there are rocks of contrasting colors,

that look especially spectacular from and underwater.

Algae, moss animals and mussels appear highlighted on the white background of chalk rock.

Then I saw two bright animals side by side: a blenny fish, and a big prawn, 

that was actually transparent but had some bright blue, orange and white spots.

This kind of prawn is like the next level of nudist, with most of its body parts being transparent 😀

The blenny fish first appeared somewhat sad but then flashed with its bright colors before swimming away.

That was definitely a memorable swim; I’d love to come again in search for sea life posing on light background of chalk rocks.

La spiaggia nudista di Guvano si trova alle Cinque Terre in provincia di La Spezia.

English

Il nudismo in Italia non è legale ma qui è tollerato. E’ proibito il campeggio, accendere fuochi o usare droghe.

La spiaggia è raggiungibile dalla stazione ferroviaria di Corniglia. Si va in direzione del paese ma non si salgono le scale che portano al paese e si prende l’ex tunnel ferroviario in direzione Vernazza che sta sotto. Attualmente l’accesso al tunnel è libero anche se le ferrovie ritengono sia pericoloso attraversarlo, ci vuole un po’ di attenzione ed essendo completamente buio è indispensabile una torcia. Le informazioni su cancelli e pagamento di pedaggio sono riferite a qualche anno fa. La concessione è scaduta da anni.

Il tunnel resta l’unico modo per arrivare in spiaggia non essendo più praticabili i sentieri dopo l’alluvione dell’ottobre 2011. In 15 minuti si raggiunge questa incantevole spiaggia ben frequentata da italiani e stranieri, ma che resta sempre un posto assai tranquillo.

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Spiaggia di Guvano, hidden beach in Northern Italy

 italiano

This post comes from one of our devoted readers in Italy. I just wrote about a ‘hidden gem’ in Athens, as well as a remote beach that you can reach through a tunnel in Sitges, Spain, but it looks like Italy offers something of that sort too.

Spiaggia di Guvano is a gorgeous nude beach in the national park of Cinque Terre, La Spezia in Liguria.

To get there, walk from Corniglia train station in the direction of the village. Don’t go up the stairs, walk down, turn to the right and walk in the dark abandoned train tunnel. The access to the tunnel is free. Old information about the charge is no longer true.

But you will need a flashlight. After 15 minute walk you will find this gorgeous beach. It is usually very quiet and peaceful. Always nude, free and happy!!!

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[that sounds like a fun way to get to a beautiful beach!]

hidden gem in Athens

 ελληνικά

Athens has a few secluded beaches that are known to have naked bathers, but this one is a true hidden gem: it’s close to the city center but almost impossible to come across without knowing the exact location, and yet it is really beautiful.

So, of course, it is a great place for skinny-dipping.

I learnt about this place thanks to Nico, one of the devoted readers of my blog from Athens.

And after a couple of years of having been in touch via email, we finally got a chance to meet in reality last September, and we talk about so many things. But then, in the spirit of ‘active naturists’, we had some time with “a little less conversation, a little more action”.

We climbed the cliffs above water.

The rocks were of bright colors, mostly of lila and orange palette, and looked especially effective in sunset light.

Then we swam to a cave that was not possible to reach by cliffs. That small cave looked like a lost pirate meeting point, but unfortunately I didn’t grab my waterproof camera with me so I cannot show it here.

The night was still very warm, so we enjoyed the night view of Athens before leaving that hidden gem.

Как раскрутить подружку на нудизм

Прошлым летом я открыл для себя ещё один нудистский пляж недалеко от Нью-Йорка –  Jones Beach. Чтобы добраться до части пляжа, где вроде как никто не падает в обморок (и главное не зовёт полицию!) при виде неприкрытых тел, приходиться идти как минимум минут 15 от автобусной остановки/парковки; но это всё-таки прогулка по пляжу, так что не так плохо, и в целом туда довольно легко и дёшево добраться из Манхеттена. Так что я пригласил туда свою подругу Наташу из Москвы порадоваться прибою без толпы… и без одежды 😉

Поначалу Наташа как-то робела и йогой занималась в своём прекрасном сарафане, но я всё же решил её уговорить и от него избавиться. Зачем скрывать свою красоту?  Вот думали это синее зелье (извиняюсь за каламбур) её осмелеет…

Но что-то не помогло!

Так что пришлось её хорошенько раскрутить,

и после пары переворотов от Наташкиного стыда не осталось и следа 😉

Она не только расхрабрилась и обнажилась,

но и пошла прыгать в волнах, а они были довольно сильные.

Но от этого веселья не убавилось, скорее наоборот!

Надеюсь, Наташа и дальше будет “нудиствовать”, а не нудить на пляже =)