Mazo Manor - S1E02 - Kingpin in Training

I was alone today (June 21st), so I filled the backpack and took the motorcycle to Mazo. On the way, I stopped at the gas station and grabbed some food for the beach.

No bug spray was needed -- the mozzies were surprisingly sparse. The water level was just fine, slightly high but there was plenty of beach available. Almanac said the water was 77 degrees, and that the water may still be a little polluted from the flooding. The beach seemed calm for a Saturday, and consisted of the Elders and random people scatted around the rest of the beach.

I asked about the garlic mustard issues from last time. It wasn't a prank. Captain Planet and Gaia (who were there today too) put it there themselves, and the caller thought that someone else did it. Another blog has posted a picture of this event. (Hmmm.... were they the ones that called Smokey?)

I took a walk around the beach. It's funny that the Elders were chatting away, and most everyone else was dead silent. There were no other chatty groups on the beach. The demographics were surprising today -- there were attractive couples there my age, maybe even a bit younger. There was even a group of just females, my age, which is a very rare sight for any US nudist venue.

Kingpin detected a newbie couple towards the back of the beach. I knew that he would want to talk to them, since he likes to meet everyone on the beach. Ok, maybe just every newbie group that contains one of more females. This is for good reason though: More females that are encouraged to be at the beach means it's more comfortable for other females and brings the gender balance closer to even. Men don't really need the encouragement.

I was curious as to how a professional such as himself would approach them, so I waited. This is really a bigger issue than it seems! A single man walking up to a couple to chat could certainly make the female uncomfortable, meaning they won't come back. The answer: Kingpin waited until she was in the water alone (and after they had been there a while), then walked over to the guy and started with a joke about his very white butt. As they were chatting, and in good terms, she came back to join in the conversation. If the woman didn't like it, she would've stayed in the water. There's a very good chance I'll be using the technique too, assuming my girl isn't along. (A couple approaching another couple seems OK, as long as it's not right away... People need time to adjust.)

Kingpin is actually great at making newbies feel welcome. I've put myself to be a "Kingpin in training", because I'm really good at watching over the events and status of the beach....when I'm there. I'd love to welcome and encourage more people of my generation, because some of us may become the new Elders someday. Also, I'm very much an "information booth". I can almost always answer any question thrown at me accurately, and know more about the news issues that people bring up than they do.

There was another couple around that were my age, but I didn't get a chance to talk to them. Also, I wanted to talk to the group of younger ladies just to figure out their story of how they made it to the beach with no men, but didn't.

While chatting with Kingpin and the newbie couple, Kingpin brought out some photo books. One was his collection from when the religious zealots were blocking the trail to the beach. The other was of him and friends, and a giant "Team Mazo" written with nude bodies on the beach, and taken from the guy that occasionally flies a helicopter to the beach. I hadn't seen these pictures, and was unaware of that event. It was probably before my time... Either way, his "brag book" impressed the newbies.

There were two groups of non-nudists in the area. One was a larger group of canoers that stopped on the unreachable island, many were younger and most were loud as they played around. Another group of 3 guys 2 girls, who walked all the way to the beach, only stripped down to bathing suits on the edge of the beach. They waded out to the reachable island for a while. It's only a guess, but I think they went to the beach to drink, and they were probably underage.

One of the guys I talked to told me a little more about the beach history. He was wondering is they were going to have the Nude Olympics on the 4th, like they have in the past. I haven't heard anything about it if they are, but I assume people will bring games and stuff on the 4th anyway. He said that attendance is way down compared to the past.

From my point of view, the beach is getting more disconnected. This disconnect makes the beach less strong, and makes it hard to plan events and have a sense of community. The web presence of the beach is primarily a group of completely out-of-date sites, a Friends of Mazo Beach yahoo group, and bloggers (All Nudist and me, are there more?). Blogs and forums are limited tools, and are all competing with each-other. I believe that the answer is in a central, community-driven site that provides a variety of tools for collaboration. If I could get the WWNCW to catch on, all sorts of wonderful things would happen.

Lastly, I asked Kingpin if he knew a "Steve & Angie". He didn't recall right away, until I mentioned Skippy. Of course he knew them! However, he didn't know anything more. Sorry guys, I can't send cookies (per your earlier comment) unless I have a last name, address, or another year. Being newlyweds, you're not listed as "Steve & Angie" (or any similar names) in the phonebook just yet. Of the 4 Steve&Angie's I found in the Madison area, none match your house. (I used Microsoft's 'Birds Eye' view, and one of the houses was for sale recently so I could see the inside of the house.) Besides, if I got cookies in the mail from someone I never met -- I probably wouldn't eat them!

All-in-all, I had a great time, but I think I overdid it. My skin has three shades of red: Light red means that it'll fade away and be just as white as before. Medium red turns into a nice tan. Dark red means it's burnt. At the beach, it appeared to be the perfect medium red.... It looked a lot darker when I got home. Oops! Promise me that you won't laugh at my peeling skin on the 4th, ok?

NEXT EPISODE

Mazo Manor - S1E01 - Garlic Mustard Mystery

It was the perfect afternoon to be at the beach! My girlfriend and I Off'd ourselves before starting on the long walk to paradise. About half-way down the trail, a car was parked in a suspicious spot with nobody around. Not only that, but the car was covered in garlic mustard. I joked that it made horrible camouflage, since we could still see the car. From the air, the bright-colored car would probably be invisible -- that's how much of the plant was on it! The only reasonable conclusion I could come up with is that they were keeping it off the ground so that the seeds don't spread.

Further down the trail, we saw Captain Planet and Gaia pulling the invasive plant. It was obvious that the car we saw belonged to them. They recognized me, since they saw me only a couple weeks earlier for the road cleanup. (Which, by the way, the nude hiker agrees with. Get out and do this too!) I offered bug spray, which they readily accepted since theirs was in the car. I didn't say anything about their car, even though the obvious question was right on the tip of my tongue.

Once we finally made it to the beach, we settled down next to the Elders. I already knew them from last year because, obviously, they are always at the beach. The Elders are always fun to talk to, because they are very opinionated! They proceeded to tell me how bad the Diligents are, though not as bad as the Contenders. I'm friends with the Diligents, and can understand their opinion, but I don't agree with it. I'll approach the Contenders at a later date and see if the accusations hold true.

After complaining about other sub-groups on the beach, they mentioned that they might start their own. They wanted to learn how to start and maintain a website, since one of the members has a lot of time on their hands. They wanted an official organization, with open books and better communication. I told them that the web work has already been done, and it's called the WWNCW. All they need to do is participate. If everyone participated, we'd have a very strong beach!

Kingpin enlightened my day when he said I was the "future lifeblood" of the beach. (In context, he was talking about my generation, but I can take it personal, right?) As Mr. Future-Lifeblood, my goal is to get everyone at the beach to work together instead of splitting into a million sub-groups and stepping on each-others toes. I didn't say any of that to Kingpin, but probably will next time!

Smokey got a call, and he couldn't stop laughing. Someone informed him about the garlic mustard covered car. Apparently it's wasn't on purpose -- it was a prank. Whodunnit? Nobody knew, but I'll ask about it next time to see if the mystery is solved. It must've been a lot of work to put that much of it on the car, so someone was serious with their intent.

After a bit, Captain Planet and Gaia made it to the beach and kept their distance from the Elders and us. It was late, and the beach was thinning out, so we decided to put our clothes on and head out. As we were leaving, we were called over to where Captain Planet was. He asked for my email address, which I gave him, and he said he'd be in contact.

So far, nobody has emailed and there have been no new users on the WWNCW. Steve and Angie posted that they were at the beach. I don't remember any "famous beach dog" being there, so they must've been there in the morning. I'll catch up to them eventually! They seem to be the dominant Mazo-area blog, despite being the younger of the two, which means they must have really good social connections. If I could achieve their support, it would be a great benefit to the beach and to nudists in general. (I know they're listening.)

NEXT EPISODE

Mazo Manor - S1E00 - Pilot

I've already been frequenting Mazo Beach. As a social chameleon, I've accidentally made friends with two opposing groups. What played out is something that reminded me of the TV show Meerkat Manor -- the only soap opera on TV where everyone is naked and fuzzy. So here is the official start of: Mazo Manor! The text-only show portraying the natrual lives of au natural tribes.

I'll try to keep things anonymous, but stay true to the developments as I witness them. The people at Mazo Beach will likely be able to figure out who's who, and I doubt that any would learn of new developments via this blog. The word spreads pretty quickly there, even between groups. Plus, I'll have at least a week of delay before I post things to ensure that it's all old news. If there's any trouble, I'll edit/terminate the series as needed.

Hopefully this series ends up being better than Maslin Beach (review), and a bit more exciting than the Mazo posts at All Nudist. I'll show the drama, comedy, conflict, and adventure of life at the nude beach. I'll try to mingle my way into each of the groups (which I planned to do anyway since I like everyone there), and approach issues from all of their observed angles. My goals, opinions, and experiences will be shared in the storyline.

The groups are as follows: The Elders, who aren't exactly old, represent a group that have been regulars to the beach for a long time. They have impressively dark tans and are always well prepared for a day at the beach. It's safe to say they know everything, and everyone, at the beach. The Diligents, who are a small group that organize the road cleanup, and occasional other events. The Contenders, who certainly put on a show when they're around. The South-Enders, who hopefully stay out of the show. And The Clusters, an always-changing group that forms in a specific spot, and has an unusually even gender balance among members.

Specific actors that I've met and named so far include Kingpin, Smokey, and Almanac from the Elders, Captain Planet and Gaia (pronounced Guy-ah) from the Diligents, and the elusive Steve and Angie ('All Nudist' bloggers) who I believe are part of the Clusters. Just like the meerkats, group names and actor names will be created as needed. I don't mean to offend anyone with the names, but I don't want to use real names either...except those who already have open blogs.

Without further to do -- let's start the show!

NEXT EPISODE

Doing Our Part

Saturday morning, I joined up with almost 15 people to clean up the roads. The 'Friends of Mazo Beach' and the 'Badger Naturists' have all of the roads around Mazo beach (County road Y and Laws Drive) covered as part of the Adopt-A-Highway program. Twice a year, generally when it's still a bit cold, we pick up all the litter along these roads. I covered a 1 mile stretch of Laws Dr. myself, which is probably why I'm still sore today... Some of the members also took the time to pull garlic mustard, an invasive species that the DNR is trying to control.

This act of giving back to the community is what puts Mazo beach in such a good standing. We help out the DNR, keep the area roads clean, and keep our beach clean. When we need the support of the community -- such as keeping the beach open, nude, and in good standing, and keeping the religious nuts away -- we generally get it. That's why it's the largest free beach in the Midwest.

Giving back to the community is something all naturists should do! Make it known that we're good people, with good intentions, and that we have a positive role in the community. Many people saw me in the orange vest picking up litter -- I waved to them all, and they all waved back in a positive manner. They know what group I'm a part of, and they saw me cleaning up the area. This is the best form of advertising that we could do! It's good for us, it's good for the neighbors, and it's good for mother nature.

So stop hiding from your community. Put some clothes on, get together with some friends, and win over some positive support from your textile neighbors. You never know, you may need that support later on...

Technology Against Privacy

There are a variety of technologies that are having an impact, or will soon have an impact, on the privacy of nudists. In photography, it is illegal to take (or at least publish) someones picture if they have a 'reasonable expectation of privacy'. (See this site, 'Private Facts' section.) Nudists have that expectation, but technology has been creeping closer and closer to show private things to the world. Presented here is a list of technologies that you should know about, what impact it may have, and what you can do about it.


World Brain
Some people call it the 'world brain', but it is commonly called Google. The apparent idea behind Google is to collect all of the world's information and make it searchable and accessible. They like to collect and cache the entire web, including blogs, finance info, images, news, patents, products, business info, academic publications, videos, code, and physical books that aren't even online to begin with. Google willingly offers to collect and host your email, events, conversations, photos, videos, groups, RSS feeds, documents, notes, blog posts, web site, custom homepage, and even your medical records. They'll gladly proxy your internet connection and crawl through your computer for you. In fact, it knows just about everything on earth (and beyond). I like the fact that my entire life is archived and searchable, I'd just prefer that it wasn't online and accessible to others! Google isn't the only one doing this, but they are the biggest example.


Impact: You have an identity online, and if you participate in nudist websites or groups using that identity, others might be able to find out.


What you can do: Keep multiple identities and keep things separate. It's difficult! Or, just be an open nudist and let others find out.

Google Maps / Earth
(Click all images for full-resolution. Pictured is the Terra Cotta Inn.) As you know, Google offers a map service that includes Satellite images. The resolution (pictured) is pretty good for cities and some other areas, but is horrible for most rural areas. Even in the best images people can't be seen and cars can't be identified.

Impact: None, yet. Future images will likely be higher resolution.

Windows Live Maps
They aren't actually 'live' as the name implies, but they have good-resolution imagery for all of the US and some other countries. People still can't be identified, but cars might be. (Pictured is the Mazo beach parking lot.)

Impact: None, yet. Future images will likely be higher resolution.

Webcams
The world is full of webcams -- just take a look at the EarthCam index. There are many cruise ships that have webcams on them as well. Luckily, Bare Necessities hasn't booked any cruises on ships with webcams so far, and there are no known webcams at nudist venues or nude beaches.

Impact: None yet, but new ones pop up all the time.

Google Street View

Since the satellite pictures can't get close enough, Google decided to take pictures from the street. Pictured here is the entrance to Sun Ray Hills. Most roads are covered in the US, especially around bigger cities. Luckily, most nudist venues seclude themselves from street view, and most nude beaches are far enough from the road where people can't be identified. However, the street view might clearly show you or your car in the parking lot of a venue or beach. By chance, it may also capture you as you enter the door.

Impact: Street view might indicate that you are entering or at a nudist venue or beach.

What you can do: See what Google shows, and file a complaint or lawsuit if it shows you at a nudist venue. This infringes on our reasonable expectation of privacy, and Google should not show that you attend a nudist venue without your permission.

Windows Live, Bird's Eye View.

Now is when things get questionable... To compete with Google's street view, Microsoft decided to fly planes and capture a "bird's eye view" with pretty good resolution. (Click the images -- first is VVRC, second is Cyprus Cove.) You can see people, and you can easily identify campers and cars. Plus, this doesn't stop at the street -- it's a close view into private property! This view covers a surprising amount of the US.

Impact: People can clearly see your car, and RV/camper, even when inside nudist venues.

What you can do: Same as with Google street view, if you think your car or camper can be identified by others. Try a take-down notice first.

Cameras
They have always been a problem for nudists, and many venues do a pretty good job of keeping them out. But it's shifting to more of a trust-based system, because cameras are getting tiny. Cell phones now have cameras that are higher resolution than my SLR, and the functionality of the phone almost requires them to slip past the gates so people don't miss important phone calls.

Because of the tiny size, spycams can be placed anywhere. This is a big threat to nudist venues! Don't believe me? Then check out this baseball cap with an embedded video camera. Everything is in the cap, and is wirelessly beamed far enough to reach your backpack. Luckily, it's still well beyond the budget of most perverts, but give it time...

For something more in-budget, PDA's and cell phones connect wirelessly to the internet or to each-other and have integrated cameras. Software has been made to turn them into remotely accessible webcams. If someone leaves their cell phone sitting somewhere, it might be doing more than just sitting!

Another problem is GPS integration into cameras and cell phones. Images that are taken are automatically geotagged with the GPS data showing exactly where the picture was taken. (You'll see why this is an issue next...)

Impact: Has always been a big issue, but geotagged high-resolution pics from tiny cameras that everyone has make things worse. Spycams are small enough to hide anywhere, and even an innocent cell phone can become one.

What you can do: Venue owners should have a no-cameras policy, or have a dedicated area where cell phones can be used (check messages, make calls, etc.) Everyone needs to be very careful about people taking pictures. Approach them if they are taking pics, and ask them to delete them and leave. If photos are published without your permission, take legal action. For spycams, devices exist that detect the wireless transmission, or that find cameras by looking for the reflection of the lens. Check into any conspicuous PDA's or cell phones laying around.

Flickr Maps

You may think that pictures can get lost in the shuffle, but then a new tool comes along to sort them out. Flickr is somewhat aggressive in figuring out where pictures were taken. They look at tags, comments, the title, and geotag data embedded in the image from the camera. Then, of course, people can search by location. Zoom in to your local nudist venues to see what pictures were taken there. Google's street view and Microsoft's bird's eye view get close to the action, but Flickr gives you a high-resolution look at private property and private situations.

Impact: Pictures can no longer get lost in the shuffle -- any that were ever taken at a location (and are on Flickr with location-specific information) are shown.

What you can do: Same as with cameras. Check the Flickr Map to see if any have been taken of you in the places you've been.

Polar Rose
You may not know about this one, but it's certainly another big privacy-busting service. This service is a Firefox plugin that detects people in pictures. If people know the person in the picture, they can tag a name to them. Then, Polar Rose uses face recognition technology to identify that person in all future photos. For example, someone tags John Smith in their family reunion picture. Later on, someone else cruising Flickr maps sees that picture of four people in the nudist hot tub, and Polar Rose happily points out John Smith. That's not good!

Going a step further, entering "John Smith" in the search box at Polar Rose's website results in showing every picture on the web in which John Smith has been recognized. Your work or family might not stumble upon your nude pictures and recognize you, but Polar Rose will, and it's only a search-box away.

Impact: Currently not much since it's still being developed, but will get much bigger over time. Search your name from time to time to see what comes up.

What you can do: Unless your an open nudist, don't post photos of yourself online. Polar Rose claims that it will have privacy functions and an adult content filter, but I wouldn't trust them. Another big concern is photos being taken of you. A wide shot at the beach, or the Google street view image could still show you well enough for Polar Rose to figure out who you are.

Update: This functionality is being rolled into Google's Picasa and Facebook. As I said before, it's getting bigger all the time!

There are lots of neat things going on, but sometimes they unknowingly intrude on our privacy. It's better to know about these advances, and prepare for them, than discover them when it's too late. It's quickly becoming more and more difficult to hide our nudist side (if we choose to) from family, friends, and work. If you'd like to continue, be very careful. Otherwise technology might make your nudism public. It would be nice to continue having the option of privacy, but we're slowly losing it to things beyond our control.

Australia Story (p10), FBA Recap

Below is the email that I sent to the FBA (Free Beaches Australia) just before I left Australia in December 2006. I resent it again during the summer of 2007 to a different address of theirs. I don't know if anyone read it, and if they did they never replied. Cruising their website shows that they didn't change anything based on what I said. It's a shame really, because it's good feedback. It might not've inspired them, but it inspired me. Not long after I got back, I started this blog and worked towards the WWNCW idea.

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FBA,

Since I used your site as an excellent source of information, I figure I should do my part to help out and provide feedback and advice regarding the beaches I have visited. Please read this write-up, since it ends with some very good recommendations that could change the future for the better.

I am from the USA, and I've spent the last 5 months as a student in Townsville. During my stay, I wanted to visit as many nude beaches as I could, since my home area climate limits these activities to only a few months. Besides, the beaches here are far nicer than anything I have at home! However, to my disappointment, I found that there are no legal nude beaches in Queensland. (There aren't any at home either, and I was hoping to finally get to visit a legal one.)

Here are the beaches I visited, and my impression (or review) of them. Lastly, I conclude with recommendations for safer beaches and to perhaps finally get some declared as legal. Feel free to add this information to the site, or forward it to anyone else who may be interested.

Townsville Area -- Shelly Beach:
This certainly is an ideal secluded nude beach. At the time of my visit it was all men, and a small group of them were beginning a sexual act. It's a large beach, and also appears somewhat popular. Everyone there at the time was nude, and no tourists seem to make it out that far. This one is a keeper (see below).

Magnetic Island -- Horseshoe Bay:
A few people of both genders were there at the time of my visit. A few clothed tourists make it out that far as well. About half of the people in the area were clothed. In addition, it is along the route for "Bluey's Horseriding". The area is in a great location, and you can drive almost all the way to it. I believe this one is slowly being lost to the tourists.

Magnetic Island -- Balding Bay:
With all the hype in the tourist guides, the tourists seem to be flooding to this one. There was only one couple at the side of the beach that were nude, and the rest were all clothed tourists. I can imagine that this one used to be great, but is quickly fading.

Magnetic Island -- Rocky Bay:
This one is absolutely great! It is the only one I've seen that has a sign declaring it as an unofficial nude beach. No tourists go there, because they go to the popular easy-access beaches instead. (Plus, if they do hike down, they get the warning before they make it into the beach.) It is mostly used by the locals, which are people of both sexes and any age that are just looking to relax comfortably. In other words, it's not corrupted by gay men. It is not a busy beach either. Lastly, there are two sections separated by rocks, so it's easier to have a piece of beach to yourself. This one is certainly a keeper!

Fitzroy Island -- Nudey Beach:
This is perhaps the most legal you can get in Queensland, where is island is privately owned and the beach is declared as a nude beach. There is no way you could get arrested for nudity unless the owner personally calls in the police. Despite the clear indication that people may be nude there, many tourists went (including families with kids) and nobody was nude. This is sad really, because it's a great beach and in a great location. Perhaps it will be used more as a nude beach when people are able to spend the night there. (Currently, accommodation is closed due to cyclone damage.)

Cairns -- Buchans Point:
This one may be popular and busy, but it's very corrupt with gay man. I spent a couple hours there, and would guess that there were 3 women and about 30 men, almost all of which were nude. Come to find out, the part closer to the rock (the symbolic start of he nude area) is considered the non-gay area. Despite my location, during my visit I was hit on by 5 guys and attracted a peeping tom who was hiding in the bushes behind me. I also heard from a local that sex was common as well, and is perhaps the reason for occasional police action. This beach needs help!

Recommendations:
In my opinion, there are two very important parts to a successful nude beach: Signage and Responsibility.

Signs, either legally posted signs or graffiti, do two very important things. They declare a beach to be a nude beach (or clothing-optional). And, they act as a warning to people who accidentally get there. If somebody isn't comfortable with nudity, they will leave before getting to the beach instead of complaining about others being nude. (If there is no warning, they feel that they belong there and that the nudies are in the wrong for being like that.)
Case in point:
http://www.ballofdirt.com/entries/10654/206348.html
They went to Balding Bay and were disturbed by seeing nudity, and they didn't know that they had stumbled upon a nude beach. Signs could've prevented (or at least warned about) this scenario. My suggestion is to post and maintain signs for the nude beaches that you would like to keep or save. The one at Rocky Bay is great, and I wish all the beaches had one like that.

Responsibility is important to keep the beach clean. Corruption occurs in a simple process: Good people go there and get nude, perverts go there to see or "hook up with" good people, good people don't like it and leave...and the perverts are all that's left. The sad truth is that good people leave instead of telling the perverts to go away, because they don't feel responsible for the condition of the beach. I told the peeping tom at Buchans Point to go away, and he did -- he left the beach entirely.

For legal nude beaches, the owners or the police are the ones responsible, and they keep the beaches clean of perverts. Sometimes not though, such as with this case:
[link broken now -- was a news story about two girls who went to the legal nude beach at Darwin. They were constantly hit on, witness a sexual act on the beach, were stalked while in the showers, and finally caught people having sex on the hood of their car! Of course, they had an extremely bad experience and made sure to tell everyone about it!]
This is horrible publicity, and could've been avoided if someone responsible would've stepped in and told those perverts to go away. Also, this will hurt the beach's reputation and may cause it to lose it's legal status.

My suggestion for this is a little more complex. The goal is to have someone (or some group) feel responsible for maintaining the purity of the beach. On your website, under "threat of closure", one of them you say:

"Some of the regulars are forming a group called the MAN group 'Maslin Association of Naturists'. They are looking for volunteers to help patrol the beach to control inappropriate behaviour."

This is a great way to clean up a beach! However, why do they have to do the work of organizing and calling for volunteers themselves? This is a very positive form of teamwork that *you* should be providing the framework for!

My suggestion is that you start a collaboration environment for this purpose. Either a wiki, web forum, or at least a simple webpage. (I could help with this if needed, but any tech savvy person could do it.) List all of the beaches that are clothing-optional, and ask for volunteers or regulars to take responsibility for patrolling a beach. List the volunteers (probably using nicknames), and have them submit feedback about the beach (or update the wiki) every few months. That way, you have an up-to-date status about the condition of each beach, and know that people are actually there and keeping an eye on it. This will help *greatly* with keeping legal beaches clean, and cleaning up the more problematic beaches.

If you accept and implement my recommendations, I anticipate that there will be less negative publicity, less complaints, and more good people showing up to enjoy the beaches. If coordinated volunteers can maintain clean beaches, I expect that that government will have a better opinion about nude beaches and perhaps might even declare more as legal. (Remember that they are influenced the most by the complaints and bad publicity, and why should they declare a problematic beach as legal?)

Thank you for reading all this! :-) Feel free to ask me lots of questions, and I will help out as much as I can.

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There you have it, the conclusion of my long Australia Story series. There's a lot that I learned while I was over there, and each experience had a value all to it's own. The story acts as a manual for keeping beaches clean, and acts as a warning of what happens if we don't. I hope that all you readers have gotten some inspiration, or at least some laughs, out of the story I have shared.

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Australia Story (p9), Rocky Bay Revisited

The end of my five month Australia 'vacation' was right around the corner, and I had time for one more trip as long as it was close. I also had a tent and sleeping bag by this time. The sleeping bag was a good blanket where I lived, so it had plenty of use. The $18 tent hadn't been used yet. I knew of the perfect place to get some use out of it.

The plan was simple: Camp out at my favorite beach -- Rocky Bay. It was the first nude beach I went to, and the only one with a sign to warn the textilers. It stays windy enough to blow away all the creepy crawlies, and wasn't far from civilization. With my first visit, I had already scoped out the perfect spot for a tent. It was sheltered by a tree and a large rock right at the back of the beach. (See image below...)


I loaded up my backpack for a night of camping, and took the bus to the ferry terminal. Once on the island, I walked to Picnic Bay which is next to Rocky Bay. On the way I noticed that there was a man sunning himself, probably uncomfortably, on the little rock in the first picture. Good, I thought, I'll have someone to talk to.

I had a big meal at Picnic Bay since I only had a few granola bars in my backpack to hold me over for the night. I hiked out to the beach, and found that I was alone there. I stripped down and laid on my towel for a while under the tree. I didn't want to be too overt, since the ferry was going through twice hourly and there was an occasional observer at the lookout point. Despite all that, this place was paradise! The cool sea breeze canceled out the blazing heat of the sun, and there were no insects or people around to bother me.

Camping is illegal in Australia, but is rarely enforced because the beaches are rarely patrolled. Camping here was a bit risky since the tent was visible from the ferry, assuming that they noticed it and cared enough to call the cops, and that the cops felt like hiking down the hill.

About an hour before sunset, I cleared fallen branches and pitched my tent under the tree and behind the big rock. I put rocks in all four corners of the tent and had my backpack in the corner where the wind was blowing from. I put on my clothes (just in case something happened, and to stay warmer) and crawled in after the sun went down.

The night sucked! The wind picked up and I was questioning the stability of my tent for the entire 11 hours of darkness. If I got any sleep that night, I didn't notice. The moon was bright and the scenery was beautiful, if only I wasn't getting sand-blasted. Tenting is always rough at night, so I didn't let it get me down. I was eagerly awaiting sunrise.

The first signs of light came when the wind died down. I already had my clothes off when I unzipped my tent. While putting on my shoes, half-way out of my tent, there was a thump about six feet in front of me. I looked up, startled, and saw a rock wallaby staring me in the face. We gazed at each-other for a moment, and it turned and hopped away. Wow! The wallaby was in the tree right above me, and I was just face-to-face with it. Nevermind the claws that it could've attacked me with -- I was amazed!

After I stood up, I looked around and could see wallaby tracks around in the sand all over the beach. I also looked around for people, before realizing that it was 6 in the morning. There probably wasn't anyone awake yet. So, I had fun with this.

I wondered all around the beach taking pictures. It was warm enough to be nude, but not too hot to stay out of the sun. I really enjoyed climbing around on the rocks that separated the halves of the beach. I've always enjoyed this, but doing it nude was so much more fun. Nobody was around to see me in this wide-open spot, and nobody could be offended by my liberal use of the camera. I only covered up and hid a bit as the ferry was going past. Once it was light enough, I took down the tent so I wouldn't risk getting in trouble.

By about 10am, I decided to start my journey back. My backpack was hanging in the tree, and I had just put my pants on when I saw a group of high-schoolers (1 guy, 2 girls, textilers) coming down the path and taking pictures with their cell phone cameras. They didn't take pictures of me, but probably would've if I was still nude. I thought it was odd that they were here -- it's really a place that you have to want to get to. There isn't an easy path, and it's out of tourist radar. (I later found out that high-school was out, and thousands went to Maggie to party as I was leaving.)

Clothing was unpleasant because it was quickly filled with sweat when I was out of the wind. This wasn't a problem on the beach due to the wind and the lack of clothing. When walking home, I also realized that my life was changed again. My parents and friends noticed a seemingly unexplained new interest in camping and being out in nature after I returned. Australia was the first place where nature was truly fun to be in. I've been hiking and camping as much as I can ever since.

This camping trip was the perfect closure to my time in Australia. Finally, I was able to really enjoy nature, and enjoy a picture perfect nude beach.


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