Naked Rambling on Tenerife

I recently read a BBC report about the Swiss passing a law banning naked hiking. Apparently certain areas of Switzerland were inundated with hikers who liked to explore the countryside ‘au natural’. Personally I don’t have a problem with naked hikers. I mean the sight of people wearing hiking boots, thick socks, a rucksack and nothing else is just too good a photo opportunity to miss.

However, we weren’t expecting to almost literally bump into any of them when trudging along a goat path in the Valle de Santiago the other day. There are scores of paths across the valley and the signposting, when it makes a rare appearance, is simply not to be trusted (one of the reasons we’ve started producing walking guides). We knew that we were nearing a crucial point where a barely discernable path left the main track, but couldn’t remember exactly where. I was pretty sure it was at the end of the dry stone wall that ran parallel to us and sure enough as we reached the end of the wall, a faint track led to the right. We turned up it intending to check it out to make sure it was the right path and almost fell over a young naked couple sitting exactly where the path should be. When they saw us they grabbed for a couple of sarongs that were lying next to them and hastily tried to cover their ‘bits’.

What we really should have done at that point was ignore them (easier said than done) and have a good look around to see if it was the path we wanted. Being British, what we actually did was look quickly away (something on the horizon in the opposite direction became incredibly interesting), behave as though we hadn’t seen them and then continue walking on the path we’d originally been on.

It turned out that they had been blocking the path we’d wanted, but on the plus side we discovered another path which knocked 40 minutes off what had been a very rewarding, but also very long walk.

But here’s a tip: if you want to get your kit off in the countryside, but don’t want to become the main attraction, don’t sit smack bang in the middle of a relatively well used path.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an accompanying photo for this particular blog.