London World Naked Bike Ride.

Today was a fun day with a  hiccup.

After looking at cycling or taking a train to one of the starting point for the London World Naked Bike Ride (WNBR) (there were a few starting points so we chose the closest to where we were staying), we found it wasn't quite as easy as we thought so we took the car in and parked it close by.

Cyclists gathered at what turned out to be someone's house.  In the courtyard people were getting painted with slogans or anything that they wanted, and there was a group from an Asian television company interviewing a few people.  We also bumped into Rayner from the German naturist walking group as well as a few others from the group.  It was good to see them again.

Paul and I painted each other, trying not to make a mess of the courtyard floor.  

And then it was time to go.  The idea was that each starting point groups would start off and meet as a huge group somewhere in London.

As we were cycling along the road we bumped into Marcus who goes to the body painting events that we attend, and we also bumped into another friend, Mark, who also goes to the body painting events. They were also attending the London WNBR.  It was good to see more familiar happy faces!

The bicycle ride eventually took us into London's city centre where we joined up with other smaller WNBR groups.  It was a big crowd!  With so many people, the bicycle ride got slower - so that everyone, could keep up.  There were a few people who walked the bicycle course, a few were on skates or skateboards.  Some people were in fancy dress, others were painted, others not.  It made for a very jovial atmosphere.  Londoners and visitors took the 'sights' very well - cheering, clapping, joking, taking photographs of the cyclists, and one or two clothed cyclists passing by the group whipped their clothes off and joined the group.

We forgot to bring our camera so we don't have any photographs of the bicycle ride.  I had remembered my telephone so was able to take a few pictures of us before the ride.  And someone kindly emailed me a picture of Paul and I during the ride.

This picture was taken from an internet
news article.

Unfortunately I didn't wear sun block so got sunburnt.  And, Sod's Law, Paul got a flat tyre at Piccadilly Circus.  We had to stop and to repair the tyre but there was no glue in the repair kit.  So we ended up getting dressed and wandered around the streets looking for an elusive Halfords, only to discover it was a depot and but they were closed.  We managed to flag down a taxi and the driver agreed to take us back to our car - after we explained that our bicycles would fit in the cab once they were folded down.  He was fine about it and we were soon on our way.  It took us ages to get back to our car because traffic through London was very busy.  It would have been quicker to cycle - if it weren't for the puncture.  And we were unsure about trying to take our bicycles on the underground.  Paul gave the taxi driver a tip - a nice goodwill gesture because he had to get a bit of some of the water-soluble paint off his seats that we had left behind from our exposed legs.  

Once back at the car, we packed up the bicycles and headed back to the Naturist Foundation where we had a long shower to get the paint off and then hit the pool for a nice swim.

Tomorrow is the Brighton World Naked Bike Ride and I hope that we can find a Halfords on the way in order to get Paul's puncture repaired or get another tyre fitted.