We’ve covered the topic of naked snorkelling and diving before, notably the semi-nude Japanese pearl fishers, as well as a fantastic naturist scuba dive at Naked Dreams.

I thought it was a topic worth exploring again.

Second Life offers opportunities to do some snorkelling. Clearly, the naturist snorkelling at Naked Dreams (see photos below) are away and far our favourite spot, but a search will turn up several locations in which to do it. The Marketplace also has many snorkelling or diving accessories, a range to meet everyone’s pocket, and the set I’m wearing in the photos (below) cost L$5 from the marketplace, although there’s a free set at the embarkation point at Naked Dreams.

I’ve snorkelled, without much success, I can never get my breathing right, and never scuba dived, but I think that SL scuba might be a reasonable visual representation of the RL variety.

Ella

Dover.

It’s a town in the very south-east corner of England, and has been, for centuries, Britain’s gateway to continental Europe. Despite cheap flights and the Eurotunnel, it’s still a hugely important ferry link to France. In the years BC (before children), we’d take the car over to France and drive to one of France’s excellent naturist resorts, such as Arnaoutchot, 1000kms distant from the French ferry port of Calais. But when you’re young, the 9 hour drive (!) wasn’t so hard to endure, at least on the way down. A couple of weeks of naturist sunshine lay ahead of you. The drive back was more difficult. Back to reality and the English rain!

We did this a couple of times until the trip where Jim pulled onto the hard shoulder of the motorway and declared that he felt himself to be on the edge of falling asleep at the wheel. After that, we always opted to stop over for the night at the half way point and drive on (or home), refreshed, the following day. Happily, the roughly half way mark coincides with another excellent naturist site, le Colombier. 

Images of Le Colombier naturist campsite

Dover played a key role in Britain’s Second World War effort. Back from the ground to air defences, closer to London, lay RAF Biggin Hill, the main base from which Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft would take off to defend Britain from waves of Luftwaffe bombing attacks.

The White (chalk) cliffs of Dover would be made famous by British singer Vera Lynn, (she’s still alive, aged 100!) at a time when the thrust of WW2 was beginning to change. Having, alone, fought off the scourge of German fascism throughout 1940, Britain was now holding its own. Pearl Harbour brought the US into the war, on the Allies side. In January, 1942, the first American troops arrived in the UK. Glenn Miller had recorded a version in 1941 but, in England at least, it’s Vera Lynn’s 1942 version that endures.

The ‘bluebirds’ in the song not only point to a time when the skies are at peace again, but also reference the pilots defending the island, the ‘bluebirds’ being RAF pilots, in blue uniforms.

I’m telling you all this because today, Sunday, a new ‘White Cliffs of Dover’ sim opened, and it’s stunning.

The real life Dover Hall

Ella at the entrance to the SL Dover Hall

Scenes from the ‘Dover Town’ part of the sim

You can teleport to The White Cliffs of Dover, a graphically rich sim in which you could spend hours photographing. SL building at its very, very best!

Ella

Edited to add: a reader has already been in touch to say that there is a naturist beach at the foot of the iconic cliffs called ‘Abbott’s Beach’, and included some photos.

So…as naturism is apparently possible at the White Cliffs, I headed back to the sim…

As promised, I’ve begun an autumn ‘tour’ of the various naturist sims in Second Life, with the intention of bringing up to date reports from many.

What I’ve noticed is that several ‘naturist’ venues have kind of re-assigned themselves as ‘clothing optional’, whereas I see very little evidence of textile beaches becoming ‘clothing optional’. In Second Life, as in real life, there seems to be a new conservatism, with naturism being an easy target to be squeezed and corralled into smaller areas.

One of the last reports I wrote, in June, was about Amoras Nude Beach, which remains firmly, defiantly naturist, (apart from its clubhouse area, clearly marked as C.O.) so hooray to them for that.

Clear signage to note the difference between the smaller clothing optional area and the larger naturist one. I love the bikini top casually draped over the sign!

Happily, I note that Amoras seems to be getting decent traffic figures, but the title of this blog entry, ‘Use it or lose it’, is a reminder that for any SL avatar who identifies as naturist, it’s incumbent on you and us to regularly use the facilities thoughtfully provided by naturist-friendly sim builders. Equally, it’s incumbent on you, the SL avatar who doesn’t identify as naturist, to fit into our lifestyle. Sim builders don’t want to be creating in a void, any more than bloggers want to write into a void. This isn’t, I should add, any reflection on Amoras, more of a general observation on sims, naturist or otherwise, in general. If you like a place, support it by regular attendance.

Harry, our photographer, takes time out to read in the Amoras clubhouse

Harry reports that one of his favourite items at Amoras was the clubhouse, very much resembling the restaurants in French naturist campsites. I didn’t notice this clubhouse when I visited Amoras in June, perhaps I missed it, perhaps it’s new, but Harry enthused about it. ‘You can choose your meal and your drink from the menu. I’d got talking to Rosie, so we sat and had a meal in their restaurant, a main course and dessert, which I thought was a fabulous touch’.

Eline, Amoras’ owner, also provides onscreen notices that give a clear indication the dress code within Amoras. There’s no excuse for not understanding the rules, and no excuse for keeping a pair of board shorts on and presenting yourself as one of those creepy guys who never gets naked, then makes inappropriate remarks in IM!

The impression I got from Amoras when I visited was that it is very much set up to reflect one of Second Life’s great strengths, the sociability angle. Harry was able to spend time simply chatting with avatar Rosie over a meal, and then dance and chill. All of these create the circumstances in which SL friendships can be forged, gentle pursuits and the opportunity to engage with other SL users from around the globe. It’s an excellent sim, photogenic and lending itself to low-key, friendly chat and dancing – an example of SL, and the SL naturist community – at its very best!

Ella