I’ve no idea how globally known the idea of ‘the gap year‘ is. In some countries, including the UK, it’s a year away from schooling between finishing secondary level education and beginning third level education -university.

The summer I finished secondary education I got a summer job in France, at Cap D’Agde, and discovered naturism, an experience that quite obviously remains with me and added to my growth as a person. From naturism I spun off in various directions to discover more about feminism, environmentalism, exercise and healthy eating, care for the planet and physical work!…and all by the time I arrived at uni four months later. As time goes on people have distilled the rather vague notion of a gap year (although mine only lasted 1/3rd of a year) and now quite readily decide to tour the world before knuckling down to a degree, a family and a lifetime of work.

In the UK, it’s not unusual for an 18 year old to pack a rucksack and head off across Europe with some, not a lot, of money and then find bits of work to help fund their next leg of the journey.

The model in our photos is maybe typical of so many gap year students. I know I’ve personally spoken to various people who’ve confessed to me they’ve discovered ‘skinny dipping’ or ‘been to a nude beach’ -no one really calls it ‘naturism’ at this point in their lives- while on this sojourn around the planet.

With ‘skinny dipping’ or ‘going to a nude beach’ high on many people’s bucket lists, the gap year sees a couple of boxes ticked early in life. Our model has arrived at the beach with her entire belongings in her rucksack, although she is obviously very body confident, wearing little more than a tank top, probably to keep the rucksack from chafing her shoulders and back rather than for any false ‘modesty’ reasons. Having reached the beach, there’s nothing else for it but to strip off the little clothes she’s wearing and plunge into the ocean, happy and content.

Tomorrow, she’ll probably be on a bus or train for another leg of her journey, building experiences. But for today, while she may never call herself ‘naturist’, she’s naked, happy and at one with nature.

SL avatar Willow, who also has a little bit of the hippy student about her, also appears to be taking in some well-earned R&R on the nudist beach having just arrived with her worldly possessions on her back.

Ella