This morning while waking the dog I’m currently looking after, I was surprised by two separate encounters with male naturists at a lake frequented by hikers and dog walkers. It was 8.30 a.m. on a Sunday, the temperature was 13 Celsius, 15 Fahrenheit. Let’s just say there was nothing to put me off breakfast.
Were they swimmers?
Perhaps that’s why they were there. But, I wasn’t keen to start a conversation and find out. That can easily be misunderstood, especially in a foreign language.
Interesting. 
What country r you in? Curious if you’re female. How awkward this would be 
. I did not know this was “a thing” outside of the designated nude beach type situation. I had to look up naturists. #feelingold
Central Europe and male (flaneur rather than flaneuse). Please be careful when using Google or other search engines to look up ‘naturist’. I can’t be held responsible for any offence or upset caused by the returned results.
Would be odd to be letting it all hang out in places not designated for nudity. Varies by country or other jurisdictions, but in some it would be illegal to expose yourself to kids, for instance.
Nudity is perhaps more tolerated in parts of Europe than in the US. Also, the context is important. The hosts/owners mentioned that some naturists like to frequent local lakes, so I wasn’t that surprised. While I haven’t seen any signs designating it as an area for naturists my guess it’s both established and tolerated. I’ve seen kids fishing in the same lake, with their friends and with their parents. I doubt that they take much no notice.
Yes, generally. Though some U.S. cities are more relaxed. Like in San Francisco or Portland, you might randomly see naked people. 
There are sometimes even naked events, like mass nude bicycle rides. I saw a funny lost-and-found posting once, where a nude bicyclist had lost their cell phone at the mass ride and was asking for help finding it. No pockets was the problem, I guess.
We’ve faced this in Greece. Rural beach area. We figured no big deal and simply not our business. So we pivoted direction and kept walking.
I was amused rather than bothered and the dog didn’t seem troubled either. I just kept walking, it’s their country and I’m just a guest.
Back in 2020 or 2021, I went for a run in the redwoods around UC Santa Cruz and came upon one of their outdoor clothing-optional classes. What struck me in a way I can’t quite put my finger on was that the students were all naked but wearing masks.
This happened at our family cottage in Canada a few decades ago. It’s in a Provincial Park, definitely not a place where nudity is allowed. I was at the cottage with my then early teenage daughter, I think she was 14, which would put this in 2002. We went down to the lake to swim and there was a group of middle aged men on a dock about 4 or 5 cottages way, but on a small cove so actually quite close. They were naked and a few of them made a point of getting out of the water and strutting around showing off their “assets”. This is on a lake where there are hundreds of cottages and any number of families present. It was a weekday so perhaps they didn’t think there would be people around. I loudly remarked that they were showing off their shortcomings. I knew that th cottage owner was a member of the RCMP so there was no point in getting police involved and I hoped my comment would embarrass them enough to make them realize that what they were doing was not ok. I don’t care that they swam nude, I cared that they saw two people on a nearby dock and thought that since we were both female it was ok to display their naked bodies in a somewhat aggressive way. I can’t remember but I may have remarked that she was a child.
Well, I’d hate to own a bike rental shop.