Done: Top off.

The cool thing about travelling is that sometimes you are confronted to new things, new people and new situations. Even old people in new situations surprise you. I discovered that when Nik and I went to Noosa National Park a couple of weeks ago.

When we were planning our trip, I noticed in the Park guide it read that Alexandria Bay, the longest inside the park, was a nudist beach. I seriously thought it was a typo and I mentioned it to Nik with a big laugh.

Now, I’m going to out Nik, and this won’t surprise anyone, but he is comfortable in his own skin and when I said nudist beach, he wasn’t thinking about his tummy or private parts like I would have been, he was thinking about not having to wear shorts and getting much needed sun on his pasty white ass. He said we had to go.




Whatever, I dismissed the option like I do when things get too uncomfortable, and anyway, I forgot all about it on our way to the park. Once we reached destination we went to all the little beaches and coves the park offers and finally reached Alexandria beach. It is a beautiful beach, and it did look quite normal, there were even fully clothed families there. Nik looked disappointed and I thought I was off the hook, until we had our fist 70 year old tanned buttocks sighting.

It seems the only nudists on the beach were all over 60, well, all except for Nik, who as soon as we reached the unofficial “naked” zone made his swimmers disappear so quickly that for a minute I thought I was dating David Copperfield.

It’s obvious to those who know me that although I’m not technically a “prude” I, like many women, struggle with the way I look, so I kept my own bathing suit intact. I laid my towel and tried to nap in the sun. Then I started thinking,
-aren’t tan lines horrible…
-hmm Nik is having fun, and the beach is almost empty…
-European girls do it all the time, and they aren’t all Sophia Loren.
So, minutes after, there I went.
Topless! That is as naked as I’ll ever be in public.

Sure it was a tad embarrassing, especially because despite the quantity of granddads exposing themselves, there wasn’t any other lady doing the same as I. Also, as soon as the top was off, a couple of young guys appeared in the distance. Honestly my only real spectator was Nik and he was my biggest fan. He even made me go into the sea like that, yes he is that persuasive.

So, what did I learn? Uh, it is actually liberating and it was good not caring. Actually, although I could not stop thinking that I would look better with 10 kilos less and a cup size more, I was alright and even had fun.

It helped that I was miles away from home and mostly, far from anyone that could recognize me on that beach, but that only confirms my theory: "When travelling you can even surprise yourself".