I don't know whether I would call it a 'highlight' of my recent trip to the Sheep's Head, but it was one of the more memorable moments.
To escape the indoor fug I sauntered to Doonin pier, a very pleasant short distance from my kind host's house, where I began to chat to a friendly fisherman about normal things, eg fish. He pointed out a small shoal of grey mullet. The conversation turned to swimming, and he told me how he couldn't swim but would like to do so. I shared my thoughts on my own learning experience, after which he volunteered to show me a few interesting geographical facets of the rocky outcrop. At first we had a very pleasant walk around the bog, over the granite, past the sheep bones etc, then onto the most picturesque tiny secluded bay imaginable. The colour of the blue-green water was phenomenal, and the way it framed the sea and the land beyond was dreamlike. Gorgeous.
This is a very secluded bay and the fisherman (who is a builder by day) told me that it's a place for naturists. I could well believe it. It seemed a terribly peaceful spot, only disturbed by the birds, who sounded angry we were too near their homes. He asked me if I minded if he took off his clothes and vacant-me thought he just meant his shirt. Unfortunately, he meant more than that. I tried to ignore his lack of apparel for a few paces, suppressing my urge to giggle which I feared might have given him a wrong signal. But after a few moments, I summoned up the courage to tell him to put them back on again in my best English voice: 'I'm sorry, but it's freaking me out, do you mind ... ?'
Trying to forget what I had glimpsed, a rather difficult task, I concentrated on the amazing rock formations, the cavernous drops, the displaced boulders, the two white bollards marking Concorde's flight path for America. It was very educational.
Hmmm - he did say 'clothes' Jude, not just 'shirt'...
ReplyDeleteDid you take any pictures of this unfortunate incident?
Seriously though, did he offer to help you disrobe (ever the gentleman)?
Sadly, I never had any similar encounters with accidental naturists of the Irish kind...
but I did last autumn in Biarritz. I was sitting alone on the beach as darkness was drawing in, armed with a couple of gottles of geer. A bloke stood under the beach shower and showered himself in front of me, then came over to talk to me, and he kept very clumsily dropping his strategically placed towel in a most clumsy way, which was somewhat disconcerting. In a mixture of pidgin French and English i managed to get a conversation going about girls, and he seemed to talk as a hetero would, but I suspect he may have been bi... After all, he really had it in for the French girls!! x