A perfect stress-busting break, says Martin Warrilow.
Do you want evidence of the healthy, life-giving benefits of naturism? Then picture myself and Mrs. W. dancing naked to the Village People’s YMCA (complete with all the movements) alongside about 100 other people in the bar of a hotel in Staffordshire in November, just four days after I had suffered a debilitating epileptic fit. Welcome to BN’s third annual weekend at Alton Towers.
We had pretty much ignored the first event in 2006 and thought hard about 2008 before deciding against it on grounds of cost. But as I became more and more involved in BN’s editorial team, we thought we really should give it a go at the end of a difficult year, during which I almost lost my job and was hit by a series of health problems, one of which was the above-mentioned fit on the Tuesday before we were due to go to Alton Towers on the Friday.
And boy, did we do the right thing! From the moment we arrived at 5 p.m. on the Friday to the moment we reluctantly put our clothes back on just before midday on the Sunday, this was the most perfect stress-busting weekend.
For the third year in a row, BN had exclusive use of Splash Landings, one of two hotels at the north Staffordshire theme park. Its main selling-point is Cariba Creek, a spectacular water park with a big swimming-pool, numerous scary rides and plenty of water-spraying gadgets, including an enormous bucket which I spent the entire weekend studying, but never quite had the courage to stand under. It’s probably great fun for textiles, but for naturists it’s heaven.
On arrival, after taking time to say ‘hello’ to all those BN faces that you know but have never spoken to, we found our very impressive room, then got ready for the countdown to 6 p.m. when the hotel became naturist for the weekend. As BN’s Commercial Manager Andrew Welch did the “Five… four… three… two…one”, I’m not sure I’ve seen so many people rip their clothes off and throw themselves into the water quite that quickly. Being middle-aged and careful, Mrs. W. and I took things rather more slowly, dipping our toes in the water for a swim before heading to dinner.
There has been criticism of the cost of the food on these weekends, and an ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet may not be the right formula for a weekend that requires so much water-bound physical activity, but there was no questioning the range or quality of the food on offer, nor the friendliness and helpfulness of the restaurant staff when faced with 400 naked customers.
Having eaten well, we returned to the bar where an extensive range of activities was underway in a really friendly atmosphere. YBN were well represented and it was great to see so many enthusiastic supporters of the next generation of naturists. The users of the BN website forum were putting faces to names and using the hotel’s wi-fi connection that was available to all guests for free for the weekend. And the ‘Spot the volleyball’ competition in reception was raising money for the BBC’s Children in Need appeal. We took ourselves back to our childhood and played draughts - there were plenty of games dotted around in “Board Games Corner” - over a couple of glasses of beer before BN member Philip Carter provided the evening’s musical entertainment. Judging by what we heard the following morning, the fun went on into the early hours, but we retired to a good night’s sleep and even missed the t’ai chi session scheduled for 8 a.m. on Saturday.
Instead, we spent the morning lounging in the bar reading the newspapers (something we never get the time to do at home) and watching the youngsters hurling themselves around the water park below. The fact that we were doing it nude among several hundred fellow-naturists made it all the more special.
The more energetic of us could have done lots more, of course. T’ai chi was followed by crafts and photography workshops, while BN president Angela Russell entertained and impressed us by leading a belly-dancing workshop which I’m sure taught a number of ladies how to shake parts they never knew they had! The “NEC” – Naturist Exhibition Centre - including the BN shop and cinema showing naturist films continued throughout. Sacred dance, soca dancing, a Book SIG meeting and bingo were other popular activities. There were lots of activities for children, including YBN-run games and fun sessions both in Cariba Creek and the hotel’s games arcade, plus a disco and musical games in the bar.
After lunch we went on a guided tour of the extensive grounds of Alton Towers. The hotel management had promised that we could enjoy the tour in the spirit of the weekend, but grey skies and persistent cold rain meant coats and umbrellas were the order of the day.
As we live in south Staffordshire, less than an hour from Alton Towers, I was shocked at how little we knew of the ancestral home of the earls of Shrewsbury, and I am very grateful to our two excellent tour guides. We will certainly go back, and if BN ever manages to persuade the hotel to go naturist in the summer, we definitely want to do the tour again, only this time in the nude!
The tour completed, we thawed out with a couple of hours splashing around in Cariba Creek, and the sight of so many naturists of all ages, colours, shapes and sizes really enjoying themselves made us realise once again just how much naturism is becoming recognised and respected.
A special mention should go here to the staff at Alton Towers. They don’t have to do this and it must be a shock for ‘textiles’ to have so many naturally nude people around the place. But they seemed to enjoy themselves as much as we did and you never know…we might even have encouraged a few to try naturism for themselves.
Saturday night was the highlight of the weekend. We missed the pub quiz in favour of dinner (all that walking in the afternoon had made us hungry!), but the disco more than made up for it. With Jim Russell at the decks, we seemed to be jumping up every few minutes for a bop and dancing nude to YMCA was later described to me by Mrs. W. as one of the most enjoyable things we had done all year.
Sunday didn’t seem to go on long enough. After breakfast, we spent some time in Cariba Creek for the photo-shoot, but we were always conscious that the clock was ticking, and that shortly after the raffle with prizes including holidays was drawn we would have to get dressed and say ‘goodbye’.
Events like Alton Towers are a wonderful way of introducing more people to naturism, and once you get past jokes like ‘You’re not going on the big dipper in the nude in November, are you?”, friends will take an interest. Let’s hope Alton Towers episode four is just as much fun.
For more information on and feedback from BN’s Alton Towers naturist weekends visit this page and follow the links to reports of previous events. There are plenty of discussions and feedback topics on the BN members’ forum here Alton Towers’ own website is here
