I managed to get out late this afternoon. I walked for an a hour and a half and saw no one, until I walked alongside the service road near Budby village. I was one side the hedge and a couple approached the other side of the hedge, as I passed I heard the woman laugh and say to the bloke,    " there's a bloke there with no clothes on" I heard him grunt as I carried on regardless.

It was quite pleasant and after a day sat tiling a roof was a nice relaxing wind down for the weekend. Although I'll be plastering all weekend at my daughters. Don't you just love them?

Was cold out there today but at least your boots stay clean do to the hard ground, dog stays clean too, which is always a plus.

Loads of cars parked up but only saw a couple of people from a distance, warming up next week which will be nice, not been much fun roof tiling this week, at least if it does warm up we can get some bricks laid.

@tribalbritYou must be very hardy to be able to be out naked in this cold weather. i used to be able to do it when I was much younger, think I am getting soft in my old age.

@dgildoo

Can't help myself. I'm out walking the dog and think "what the hell" and off come the clothes.

@tribalbrit I know what you mean, I am sure if I had a dog to get me out in the first place I would be exactly the same.

Posted by: @dgildoo

@tribalbrit I know what you mean, I am sure if I had a dog to get me out in the first place I would be exactly the same.

Ill lend you our dog then lol 

@mark-and-tracey That is very kind of you, can you bring him on my next walk.

Well, I got up the hills today (and nearly never made it back). Because I couldn't get the car out, this was the first time I had been up there in nearly a week - safety first.

No one on the hills at all and me and the dog did a much shorter walk but still took the same time. At a bridge across a burn, the snow shelf gave way and the dog went tumbling into the water and couldnt get out. The rucksack came off and I jumped in with the ice cold water at at waist height and got the dog out. My footing gave way and I was up to chest height and not feeling the bottom. I scrambled out and the dog wanted to play. Boots and socks apart, I dried out within a minute or so and carried on. 

The snow started out at calf to knee deep but by now it was thigh to waist deep. In places, it was necessary to crawl on hands and knees to make progress. We made it and none the worse for out trip except for a cut knee, a loss of a pair of grippers (probably in the water) and feet like blocks of ice. An exciting trip where all's well that ends well.

Wow - a close call, Hillwalker! Round here (Lake District) when there's flooding, if somebody comes to grief and drowns it's as often as not when they go in after a dog. The dog usually seems to survive.

Glad you're OK.

Sounds like a very lucky escape, Hillwalker, though it's tempting to think that being naked was an aid in this case. Had you gone into the water clothed there's every chance that getting waterlogged the clothes would have held you down, and once out the clothing would have stayed wet and likely led to hypothermia. But I don't think I'd like to test out the theory whether clothed or naked!

I was ice -skating the other week when I skated close to one of the holes in the ice that swimmers had made. A small dog decided to jump in, or wasn’t looking what is was doing but then couldn’t get out and was scrabbling about ineffectually. I was quite close so was going over to help it out, fully in control on my skates. But the woman was panicking and rushed over the ice to help her dog, nearly having a nasty accident in the process in her ordinary shoes on wet ice. Fortunately it was only shallow and she probably suffered nothing worse than sodden, freezing boots, but she could still have cracked her head on the ice. Unfortunately, people lose their heads when pets get in trouble, and frequently end up drowning while the pet gets out.

Walk 16th feb 2021 reported to police

Just after lunch today I went for a 4.75 mile  naked walk in Sherwood Forest. There were very few people around. The first people I saw from about 300 yds away were a family. I couldn't really see them but I could tell they had small children with them so instead of continuing towards them I veered off to the left to walk through the undergrowth so I did not have to pass close by them. As I got back on to the path I looked back and could see them some 300 yards or so away. However there was a man walking towards me from the direction of the family, I continued walking away from them. He ran to catch up with me and told me to put some clothes on as it was illegal to be naked because he knew of the case of the naked rambler. I just told him it was not illegal and continued walking, he said that the children had seen me, I just replied that no one needed to look and walked on. A little further and I met a man and a woman who were very friendly, and later a bird watcher who just said hello. As I got back to my car I could see a police van waiting at the side of the road. As I started to drive away a male and female police officer stopped me and said they wanted to talk to me. They said they had a report of a naked man walking in the forest. I told them about the family I had seen earlier and how I had given them a wide berth and that I was not doing anything wrong. The female office told me that she knew I wasn't and she told the person who had reported me that no laws had been broken. Apparently the person who reported me apologised to the police officer and said he would not have called the police if he had known.

So I asked the [police why they were not following the College Of Policing Guidelines. They said they were but they needed to find a way to stop getting these calls. The police officers said that these people had been alarmed and distressed, so I explained what that meant in law. They were reluctant to agree with me saying it was not right if they felt alarmed and distressed. I repeated that I had been considerate to the family by walking around them instead of up to them and it took them some time to argue themselves into a corner at which point all they could do was agree with me. They then asked if I could work something out with the warden. I told them that I and BN have been trying to come to an arrangement whereby the public could be informed that naturists may be seen but the wording the RSPB wanted to use would actually result in more complaints because of the inappropriate use of the words alarm and distress. I laboured the point that the issue was education and signage just to let the public know that they may encounter naturists. They agreed and they agreed that their job was to protect all law abiding citizens and that included naturists. They also agreed that they had a job to do to help educate the public by telling anyone who reported seeing a naturist that it is a lawful activity. They also agreed that they need not have attended but still said they wanted to find a way to stop the calls. At the point we started to go round in circles again and they could see that they were getting nowhere so wished me a good day and left. 

While the conversation was friendly and at no time did they try to accuse me of doing anything illegal I am rather disappointed that they resorted to try and put the frighteners on. If it had been any other naturist, not as knowledgeable and confident as I am it would have been very unnerving.

I had a visit from 2 female police officers last year who also told me that the boss wanted to try to find a way to stop the calls about naked people walking in the forest. It appears as if someone at the top is putting pressure on to try to intimidate naturists, I really do hope that this is not the case. If it happens again I will be reporting them to The Police Complaints Commission.

I have just returned from a fantastic walk, the best this year. I was out for 2 hours and although I did see a couple of people I avoided them by taking another path and as you did gave them a wide berth. they could probably see that I was naked but unable to see anything in detail.

It was colder today than yesterday but actually felt warmer, yesterday I crossed paths with a lady walking two dogs, it was unavoidable but I gave her a cheery wave and carried on my way, 

The people that reported you are probably "covid walkers" as I call them and have no idea that naturists frequent the area, good on you for holding your own with the police, it makes it that much easier for the rest of us and I thank you for that.

@tribalbrit Yes covid walkers. I told the police that they would be as most people who walk the area are aware that naturists use it. They agreed.

It was the wind that made it feel colder today, glad you enjoyed your walk.

@dgildoo I think you've hit the nail on the head in your final paragraph.  It may be perfectly legal to be out walking naked but if someone at the top wants to put a stop to what the police consider nuisance calls there's really only one way they can do it and that's to put a stop to the activity that the callers are complaining about, legal or not. Unfortunately, despite your regular usage of the Budby Forest area, naturists are in a very small minority when compared to the much greater numbers of textile users.  As far as the police are concerned, if a few naked visitors can be persuaded by fair means or foul to desist, the problem goes away.

In a way, I'm glad it was you that they spoke to because of your extensive knowledge on these matters. As you say, a much less experienced naturist, myself for example, would have been in a much more difficult position and may even have been intimidated into admitting something that was not the case.

Keep up the good fight and winning over hearts and minds - one day you may even convince high-ranking police officers. In the meantime, continue enjoying your walks.