Post #7 - Platja (beach) de la Devesa -Nudist destination review

Venue - Platja de la Devesa

Location - Valencia, Spain.

Review period - A weekday during Oct 2015
Review type - First hand.

Visit the Instagram page for the 2nd page with more bullet points on this destination.

Brief background

• Wikipedia mentions this as a beach for nudist use.
• Buses available from city. Roughly 10 minutes walk from nearest bus stop.

When I visited

• I got the chance to visit on a weekday. 
• When I reached Valencia, I had hardly 2 or 3 days to spend there. It used to get a bit cold by evening (below 18 degrees Celsius). Having ventured unsuccessfully in search of remains of the Spanish nudist vibes, while in Barcelona, earlier, I had already realized that it was not the right season and it was only by chance that I could get a little bit of the feel. 
• So, I decided to go on the warmest sunny day, with the day time temperature showing a maximum of 22 degrees Celsius. This is how the beach entrance looked that day -

Total visitors 

• Roughly 10, which was quite less. The couples and females were along the entrance and a few naked males could be seen scattered along the Southern end.

Gender ratio

• Women : men was roughly 2:3, with most of women at the entrance of the beach and most of the men behind or along the dunes further along the Southern end.

Age bracket ratio

• Guesstimate - (18 - 40) : (40 +) was roughly 1 : 3 among men and 1 : 4 among women.
• I was greeted with the pleasant sight of a young topless couple at the entrance, probably in their 30s, which was relaxing on the dunes, a bit away from the beach. That was the only couple I remember seeing. There were a bunch of women, probably above 50s and some 40 plus men relaxing near the dunes. 
• I remember one young guy, who came back, as he said, looking for his cap or phone or something (which I don't remember now). He said he asked a few people and they asked him to check for a guy whose descriptions, as per him, matched mine (see my pic below). So, he asked me first and then, in order to confirm, asked me to show my bag, to which I agreed. He inspected and left when he did not find it. I don't know if I should put this as a bad experience or not, but I just moved on.

States of undress 

• Roughly 30% of the women were topless. No woman was naked though. 
• Roughly 50% of the men were naked. All the naked men, roughly less than 5, were located with large distances between each other.

Nudity rules 

• I could not see any sign boards demarcating nudity rules, despite this being a blue flag beach, which means the code of conduct for the beach area should ideally be displayed. 
• When I reached the beach, I saw this bunch of old women, of which a few were topless. I asked them if it was a nude beach, to which they replied no.

Racial & ethnic composition

• All the visitors seemed to be white.
• The bunch of old women at the entrance were probably locals from Spain, although I don't remember them speaking.

Body size ratios

• Roughly 1:1.
• The young couple at the entrance as well as few of the old women were quite fit.

Miscellaneous points

• Entry - Open and free. Singles allowed.
• Solo visitors present? Only males.
• Interaction level - Low.
• Sexual activities observed? No.
• No restaurants, stalls, toilets.
• No lifeguards.

Difficulty level

• Moderately difficult to get naked, due to various reasons.
• Because of no clear demarcation with sign boards, it was not clear whether nudity was allowed in the beach or beyond a certain point. Unlike in Australia, this is something which I have missed in all the so called nude beaches in Spain where I have been to. 
• Even though I had read that it was legal to be nude in any beach in Spain, the additional clothing of visitors due to the colder off season, had always left me unsure as a newbie, of the actual stand on nudity there - 
• whether it was okay to disrobe? 
• whether nudity was just tolerated or because it was so normal in Spanish culture that it need not need of a mention at all.
• Also, the presence of mostly males, after the entrance section, made it further difficult for me, honestly, as a solo newbie straight male, to get naked. As many of them could be lying behind the dunes (although not permitted, mostly due to dune restoration and wild life preservation) you never knew when one could suddenly appear from behind the dunes. It would also be awkward to check those sections before getting naked, as you could intrude into someone's privacy.
• There is something about these long, wide beaches, with sparse and mostly male population, that has made me feel uncomfortable. I was finally able to get over this feeling in my 2nd abroad trip to Australia, while in Tyagarah beach. 

Few more pics from my visit

Road towards beach

That's me covered up for the pic ;)

Waiting at the bus stop on the way back to city

Beach sign board from bus stop

What is "The Gender Ratio Project"?

• A bigger project, which is beyond just nudist destinations and travel places. There are a few events already covered, mostly from India.
• Visitor stats-wise, it mostly, just covers a few bullet points, in addition to the gender ration information, which is a USP.
• It has a facebook page, but no Instagram page at present.

Post #6 - Tyagarah beach, NSW, Australia - Nudist Destination Review

Destination - Tyagarah beach

Location - Tyagarah, Near Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia.

Official link - N/A

Review period - 29th Dec, 2019, a weekend. 

Review type - User contributed.

Background

Although this article is part of the @nudistcalendar project, I am not going to recommend this place as an awesome destination for the month of April, rather I would label it as a place you should not go during April. Note that, it is not about the place alone, but the time of year which matters a lot. I have had several such visits to places over the last couple of years, which were not so great, but those experiences too were useful in my journey later. I will try to add some more of these places to this list of "nudist destinations you shouldn't visit during a specific month". I will deviate a bit from the usual bullet point style of reviewing for such visits and would write more about my feelings, though I will try to add visitor information wherever applicable.

Quick review

Visit instagram page for more bullet points on this destination.

The beach visit

I booked two bus tickets the earlier day, one each for the morning and evening respectively. I had almost 3 hours in hand there, roughly between 12 and 3 pm. I spent some time at the main beach in Byron Bay and inquired about the public transports available from there to Tyagarah beach. I came to know from the tourist info center that the frequency of buses in that route (Ballina to Mullumbimby) was almost once every one and half hours, and the beach appeared to be at 5 to 10 kms walking distance from the nearest bus stop. So, this was definitely not a good option for that day, as I needed at least an hour to spend at the beach. From my previous experiences of searching for nude beaches or nudist sections (which were only from Spain so far), I knew that this much time was the bare minimum, as nudist sections are sometimes at a specific part and one may need some help with directions. So, the only option available was to hire a cab. Given the weather, which was partly cloudy and windy, and a temperature of hardly 20 degrees Celsius, I knew it was not a great day for being nude at the beach. However, I still decided to take a cab, because this was my only opportunity for now. The cab cost me somewhere around a 100 AUD one way. The cab driver was a real gentleman who shared lots of stories and travel tips and also his number so that I could call him in case I faced any problems and after I was done at the beach, if I wanted him to drop me back to Byron Bay at a discounted fare. The road from the nearest bus stop from the highway was secluded and surrounded by the forests of the Tyagarah Nature reserve. I realized that I made a good decision taking a cab, as I could get confused or lost and even creeped out otherwise.

Once I reached, I saw a few camping vans and cars parked at the entrance. This is how the beach looked that day -

Definitely not a great day to be naked. The nudist stretch seemed to be long and broad, but that day, there were rarely any people visible from far away. It felt thrilling to walk naked along the beach though. I had so far, not got a chance to do that, in this trip, so was excited, yet conscious because of some previous creepy experiences with male visitors in Barcelona, Spain. I was thrilled at the chance of being seen naked by women but was also scared a bit, at the same time, to be seen by men. I walked till the far South end of the beach and gathered courage to take off everything and took a dip in the cold sea water and then started walking. I put my towel over my shoulders and put my backpack as a additional shield, to cover my male parts, if I felt the need for it. From far it would sometimes be difficult to identify if an approaching person was a woman or a man. That was the most thrilling moment for me. I decided to cover up, in advance, if I could identify a man and let it be if it was a couple or a female. I remember walking past, almost face to face with an old clothed couple and it felt like a mixture of thrill and a confidence boost and collection of several other feelings that are difficult to explain now.

After returning back from the far South end of the beach, towards the entry point, I remember walking past a white couple, probably aged more than 40, which was lying down away from the shore. The male was probably half naked and the female was clothed. I continued walking towards the North end of the beach and got sight of a brown looking man, probably in his late thirtees, who was also walking naked, like me, carrying his backpack. We crossed each other when he returned. We respected each other's privacy and continued walking. I knew that the majority of men visiting nude beaches were nice, but I needed a real experience to feel so and with this experience probably, I started to feel comfortable being naked in front of men. I returned from the North far end of the beach and stopped for a while near the entrance, where the couple was stationed. Meanwhile I made a call to the cab driver to come and pick me up. I stood there naked for a while, near the shore, when the lady of the couple was also standing within speaking range. She was clothed and was comfortable being around me. We did not exchange any conversation. I sat for a while, a little far from the shore and got dressed. I did not want my cab driver to come down and catch me naked. That would be awkward for me, even though we had discussed about a nude beaches that I should see on my next stop at Sydney.

There, I had finally got the thrill of being naked in a designated nude beach, irrespective of the gender of the people who would see me. I did it after desperately looking for it during my trip, while in Melbourne, Cairns and Gold Coast. While in Melbourne, it was too cold during April. I was aware of the temperatures at that time, but I had hopes from Cairns and Gold Coast, but due to lack of proper research, I came to know only after reaching Cairns that the entire state of Queensland had a no nudity law in public and there was not a single legal nude beach. This came as a big frustration to me as Queensland boasts itself to be the "Sunshine state". My observation in the beaches of Cairns and Gold Coast was that nobody was nude anywhere. There were very few women topless on one beach but they were very discreet about it or were lying on their chest. I searched a lot for information and posted on Tripadvisor but mostly got trolled for my nudist intentions and the posts were later removed. I wanted to find out if I could rather go to Darwin, instead of Gold Coast, given that it was further up North, and could be warmer and there seemed to be nude beaches there. However, I was not confident of getting nice beach days, as it was difficult to predict the weather there. The weather those days in Cairns and Gold Coast used to be rainy a lot. This was the biggest challenge in locating a nude beach in my trip and I realized, how important, it was, to bring in more information in more blogs on nude beaches. That is how the idea of a Nudist Calendar came to my mind.

Post #5 - Event review - Bacardi NH7 Weekender Music Festival

Event - Bacardi NH7 Weekender Music Festival.

Location - Pune, India. 

Official link - https://www.facebook.com/nh7weekender/
Review period - Dec 2018

Quick review

Brief Background

• NH7 weekender is one of the biggest music festivals of India touring multiple cities and covers diverse genres including rock jazz, reggae to name a few. There is also fair inclusion of electronic music.

• It is a great platform for famous as well as independent and emerging artists from India and around the world.

• Pune is the home city of the event, where it happened for the first time in 2010. Since then it has been to several cities including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Noida, Kolkata and Shillong.

Attendees stats

• Total attendees - Officials figures for 2018 event are not out yet, as per our observation, an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 people were present at the event at a time on the last day of the event.

• Gender ratio - Women : men felt roughly like 1 : 2.5 inside, in the food stalls section. We could not do enough sampling though. While entering the event on the first day, a random counting of the people walking towards the entry gate gave a ratio of 1:3.

• Dressing - While the men are generally dressed well covered, a lot of females come wearing very revealing dresses. It would be difficult to write down a ratio but, at least 10 girls could be seen wearing only lingerie like bras (please let us know in comments if you know what are these called) to cover their tops. Though last year, the ratio of girls wearing tops exposing their midriff was higher, with almost 1 in every 7 girls doing so, this year it came down to almost 1 in every 15 or more. The acceptance of those lingerie like bras seemed to increase this year.

• Age ranges - Majority below 25 years. 18 to 21 seemed to be a significant group.

Other information

• Fun activities - There were stuff like life size fussball booths, where people would position themselves like the human figures on rods in a game of fussball. Also, there was a photo booth which captured photos of people jumping on a trampoline from multiple angles and sent them a compiled version of those. However, in past years, there could be seen one or two people, once in a while holding a "Free Hugs" banner in earlier years, whereas not even a single such boy or girl could be seen this time. There was also a "Camp Tinder" in the 2017 edition, which was absent this year. Although it was not a dating booth, as there was no blind dating sort of thing going on there, the crowd was just hanging out or playing some games or listening to some smaller casual jams by the artists. 

• That year, there was also an "It's a match" phone screen cutout with face cuts wherein two people could put their faces and get a photo.

• Event entry - Regular tickets priced at approx 3500 INR for 3 days, with discounts for those under 21 and for early bird and pre-season sale.

• Event rules - Alcohol is served only to those above 25 years of age. Bands are issued to attendees at the registration counters after verifying their identifications. Sections serving alcohol were gated and bouncers at those gates allowed entry for those with the alcohol bands only. 

• There were designated smoking zones. Checking was done at the entries to prevent those with drugs.

• Food and other stalls - 

• There were two large food courts, with varieties of food from different cuisines, lots of T-shirt stores with nice designs and alcohol being served next in at least two arenas.