To get to our starting point of the hike, we first took a train. I will show photos of the train later on this post.
There are rivers and bridges to cross.
Different rock formations:
There are even caves:
We soon have to split into two groups. The tougher trail goes through narrow rocks on the face of a mountain cliff. There is a chain you can hold on to and of course you need both hands to ensure you're safe. But it's no fun climbing over a difficult trail and you have no photos to remember it by. Besides, I'm as sure-footed as a mountain goat.
That's the end of our hiking and it's time to board the train.
For the sake of completeness, I decided to write this short post as an addendum to the last post. This is because following yesterday's post, I received a few queries from my readers and I thought it would be good if I gave the full picture. I was asked if we walked in the nude on public roads as well. Do I have photos of them? Whether I have a photo of something is a question one need not ask a selfie addict. Of course I have photos of Everything. Countless photos. Hahaha
The following photos were all taken on 19 July 2022.
Here is a passing car on a public road:
A bus-stop:
A passing bus:
And a long tram with tourists in it:
I hope this gives a better picture of our hike. The total distance exceeded 14km in a single day.
My next post will focus on the following day - 20 July 2022.
ERRATUM
I just realised that I made a mistake above. All the photos above were in fact taken on 20 July 2022 and not 19 July 2022. This may not be an important point to my readers but since this is my personal diary, I have to be sure that such mistakes are not made. In most of my holiday photos, I can tell that it's a different day by the change of my clothes. But obviously I can't do that here. Haha.
Here is a pic of me with a passing car that was really taken on 19 July 2022:
Now that we are approaching the end of 2022, I thought I should write daily accounts of some of the days in 2022 which are interesting to me in my life as a naturist. As far as possible, I will avoid posting pics of other people unless I am fairly certain they are OK with it or they have appeared in other public sites.
19 July is the first day of my nude hiking in Saxony, Germany. On this day, the plan is to see some old abandoned railway line and to visit an old dilapidated castle.
It is a hot day.
The trail is long. and there's a lot of walking. This pic gives a perspective of how far one has to walk.
Sometimes it gets very hot.
The road is flanked on both sides by fields.
A word of advice to the uninitiated. It's wise to apply sun cream all over your body including parts of the body that one does not normally apply it or you may end your holiday with sun-burn all over your body.
Sometimes, there is shade.
There may be the occasional car on the trail. Just step aside and take a selfie! Haha
There are refreshing stops at streams and rivers.
We sometimes pass through fields where workers are gathering the harvest.
There are quaint little bridges too that one has to cross.
Sometimes, there are cows along the way and they afford a great selfie backdrop.
We finally arrive at our destination - the disused railway track.
And the castle remains.
The record on my Garmin GPS watch shows that I cover a total of 14.36km.
I have been keeping several blogs on my life as a naturist on various websites partly as a form of diary keeping (an activity which I have been hooked on since the age of 7) and partly to promote naturism and to affirm the decency of the nude human body. Unbeknownst to me, my Wordpress blog (which is paralleled by this blog in case one website outlaws nudity suddenly as some have been known to do) which isn't in any way outstanding - it's more like a personal diary which I imagined would bore anyone to tears - was selected in the Top 35 Naturist Blogs by Feedspot. See No.20 for my blog.
Now that should spur me on to kick off my sluggishness and update my blog more regularly. Now is the right time to blog more seeing that I have just completed all my travels for this year and I must have some story to tell.
In the meanwhile, here's champagne to celebrate my getting on Feedspot's list!
I used to post a lot on Tumblr until the website became puritanical a couple of years ago and even decent nudity was banned. Recently, Tumblr has turned over a new leaf and has allowed bloggers to post decent nude pics on its site, provided they are flagged 'mature'. I was going through my past Tumblr posts when I saw this link which I posted on Tumblr on 21 November 2017. The caption under the photo reads 'My God! This photo is pregnant with Edenic meaning. Nude in the garden eating a fruit and reading a book that says "God’s Problem". Haha'.
I thought it'd be a good idea to do another pic in exactly the same pose. I managed to find the same book, the pages of which have now turned yellow and I got the same chair, a large fruit and I was ready for a photoshoot. It so happened that there were dead leaves all over which was just right. The photo beautifully captures the passage of time and how after 5 years, everything is in decay right down to the dead leaves strewn all around. Surely this can be considered an artistic piece? Maybe I should title this art piece "Time's Winged Chariot". Haha.
I used to be an avid cyclist and when I read that Lance Armstrong had testicular cancer and I read unverified reports associating testicular cancer with excessive cycling, I naturally got rather worried. There are videos on YouTube explaining how we can check for testicular cancer and every man is advised to do it. I tried examining myself but it was very hard for me to tell if there was any abnormality. I did notice, however that my left testicle was slightly different from my right. And because I post a lot of nude selfies online, a friend told me that my left testicle looked 'tighter' than my right. I decided to find out once and for all if I had testicular cancer and booked to see a urologist - that's the expert on such a thing.
Yesterday, I had an appointment with my urologist at the hospital. The urologist examined me and then used an ultra-sound machine to scan me. He told me that there was absolutely nothing wrong with either testicle. The testicles were 'very smooth' and 'not hard' (his words). Apparently if they are hard and not smooth, you may be looking at testicular cancer. He also showed me on the ultra-sound screen that blood flow to and out of my testicles was normal and perfectly healthy.
I was told that it's normal to have one testicle lower than the other. Nature makes us that way so that when you put your thighs together you don't crush the testicles. There are many variations in our organs and we sometimes wrongly expect perfect symmetry when nature wisely intends for them to be asymmetrical. But unless we see a professional medical practitioner with expertise in this area, it's very hard for us to be sure if there is something wrong with our bodies. I was also told that there are many men who are ashamed to see a doctor even if they suspect there is some abnormality in their testicles. This is particularly common in my society where people are generally very conservative. There are many patients who wait until the cancer has spread elsewhere before they get themselves treated and by then, the prognosis is usually bleak.
I can understand how most people feel. Even though I am a rather open naturist and I am by no means ashamed of my nudity, having the testicles examined is quite a different thing altogether and even for me, it requires a bit of mental preparation. If that is how I feel, what about those who aren't even naturists?
So, whatever your feelings may be, just go and get yourself tested. Ultra-sound imaging is totally non-invasive.
Feeding my fish and knowing that my body parts are perfectly healthy and normal and I have one cancer fewer.
I just arrived home last night from Saudi Arabia. I had a sore throat on Friday night but I thought it was just the strong air-conditioning in the hotel. But when I was on the plane, towards the end of the journey, I developed a cough which I initially attributed to the food I had just consumed as we were preparing for descent. This morning, I had a bad cough and cold but no fever. I tested myself and I was negative.
I'm not afraid of Covid. I had my 5th jab (the bivalent Moderna) just a couple of weeks ago. Even if I catch Covid, it can only be very mild. But the Covid vaccination does not protect me from OTHER illnesses. Mask-wearing is not done in Saudi and neither was it a requirement on board the flights. I must have caught some flu virus while travelling. I'm very up-to-date with my vaccinations (I'm totally evidence-based and it's a huge impossibility for me to be ever influenced by fake news and conspiracy theories) but I'm not much of a mask wearer unless it's required by law. I see the efficacy of donning a mask but I'm generally too lazy to do it unless it's a requirement.
This afternoon, I sat out in the open to eat my yoghurt and I felt much better after that. There is something to be said about connecting to nature. Here, I am no longer being evidence-based but I generally feel much better after I have sat in the open with my feet on the ground, even if it's untidily bestrewn with dead leaves.
The moral of this story is: Get your vaccination - I've had my third booster after the two primary Pfizer vaccines. All 3 boosters were Moderna, the third was the bivalent Moderna. I still haven't caught Covid and my family who caught the virus had only mild symptoms and a full recovery - my entire family have been properly vaccinated and boosted. And when you do catch a normal cold, sitting out in the warm tropical afternoon does help.
