I planned to go to one of my favourite large woods near Worksop as I was off that week and the weather was supposed to be hot as it was mid August. It turned out to be one of the hottest days here and the thermometer managed to hit 33C!

I was used to walking in temperatures of around 11 degrees at night comfortably, although I have managed a chilly 3 degrees for an hour in the winter (not that much fun actually!)
Well it turned out that thunderstorms were predicted for my arrival at around 11pm and sure enough when I arrived at my usual camp site (the place where I can safely leave my clothes) it had already started raining.
The most unusual thing about rain in the woods during summer is that it takes quite a while for it to actually make it through down to ground level.
So I could hear it raining way up in the canopy but it was still quite dry down on the forest floor.
One last look at my phone confirmed a quite heavy squall line of storms 30 miles north-west of me, but the atmosphere was a balmy 16 degrees and I planned to only explore for an hour or so.

With my phone and clothes safely hidden I set off in the direction of the public path but remained (as I tend to) off it so that I didn't bump into anyone short cutting from the various pubs around.
In those days I walked completely naked, I now wear specially modified soft soled deck shoes to stop the pain of beach nut spines!
So walking "off path" had it's down sides, but it at least gave me shelter in case of the general public showing up!
The rain was still moderate and apart from the occasional large cold drop from a leaf right in the middle of my back, I was still pretty dry, with most of what little water getting to me evaporating off.
I reached a point which I call "the point of no return" it's the part of the wood that I have yet to explore, and if I do explore further I have no idea how to get back quickly. (remember its dark and the place is full of trees!)

It's always a magical point for me because your senses are in conflict, you sensibility says - go back. Your want to explore and enjoy your surroundings say's - no, go on do it!
I looked back at where I had come from, sure in the knowledge that I could quickly return to the safety of my clothes, and then down the slight bank into an abyss of black and wood.
I'd never explored this far from my clothes before and I also knew in the back of my mind that HEAVY rain was on the way. If I went on, how long will it be before the rain makes it down to me and will I be Ok?
I'd never been wet naked before, not by rain water, and I didn't know if I might suffer with hypothermia!
But the pull of the forest was strong this evening and I decided (don't ask why!) to carry on into the wood. I must have gone 15 to 20 feet and I honestly couldn't tell you how to get back to where I just started the second part of my adventure.
Well I thought, I'm really exploring now.
The rain sounded so beautiful, and yet so foreboding. The gentle and distant almost harmonic hush of rain up in the tree tops was countered by my fear of what happens when I start to get wet.

I was roughly between two main paths that run though the wood probably a quarter to half mile apart, so I was happy that I wasn't going to be seen by anyone, plus it was now well after midnight so I was able to relax and just enjoy my surroundings.
The trees thinned out and I came to what I thought was a clearing filled with soft bracken. In dim light even with your pupils wide open green looks grey and details of particular plants a bushes don't really become clear.
Well I headed for the field of bracken as I wanted to get to the path on the other side of the wood, just in case the rain really pepped up.
As I headed into the clearing I had to step over a few brambles and one or two boggy patches.
It wasn't until I got further in that I realized my clearing was actually a clearing FULL of low lying brambles!!
I stopped and looked round at my predicament. I was probably just short of half way though them and they were everywhere!!
It was at this point - half way through a bramble patch that appeared to stretch as far as the eye can see that the rain took it up a notch.
Now I was clear of the wood, out in the open and not going anywhere fast!

I decided the only thing I could do was press on. I couldn't go back because I was already almost half way through what I later called "The Sea Of Brambles" plus I didn't KNOW my way back after that, the wood was so thick I could end up going round in circles for hours!
Going forward would at least get me to the other main path and a known way home.
So, after traversing the other half of of the "clearing" I finally and painfully arrived at the far tree line. Looking beyond the trees I could see another path, not the path I was heading for but one I was totally unaware of. It had few trees over hanging it so light from the sky was getting through and I could now see the rain really coming down.
But still, I was getting wetter but not uncomfortably so. I could hear running water nearby and knew it was the stream that ran through the east part of the wood. So I took the time to scramble through the bushes down the rock filled gully into the stream below to wash my poor scratched legs and muddy feet.

It was then that I realized what an incredible place I'd just chanced upon. Water cascaded over the rocks plunging into rock pools and bubbling away downstream, while overhead the rain could be heard (and felt) high up in the trees. What an incredible place.

The small valley I was in, surrounded by bushes and rocks didn't give me a clear view of the rest of my surroundings, so I was too late to spot the two mountain bikers with powerful lights coming directly from behind me up on the path!!
I instinctively pulled a bush around me and put my head down knowing I was too late to escape away from the path which was just feet away!
The lights from their bikes never reached down into the small gully I was in and they whizzed by so fast that they wouldn't have seen me anyway.
Wow, that was close!
I remember letting out a "phew" and maybe a small curse word about how close that had been before gathering myself enough to stand up and check that they had indeed gone.
Feeling relieved, and a whole lot cleaner I decided to resume my journey despite wanting to enjoy this little haven longer.
I tried to keep within the bushes as I was so close to the track, but here the bushes were very unforgiving and they blocked whichever way I tried to turn, so I had no choice but to break out onto the path.

It's around 1:30am now and even the sound of very distant taxi's on the roads around are becoming few and far between. So there I am, stood completely naked on a otherwise well used path, it's here that I realize how vulnerable I am.
I'm naked, it's the dead of night, I'm god knows how far away from my clothes, it's raining - hard, and I still don't know exactly where I am!

Yet right here, in this very spot I've never felt so alive.

I was completely at one with nature, the only person on the planet who really knew at that time what its like to be free of bonds and completely wild.
I began to walk.
I followed the path for five or ten minuets still trying to grasp the reality of my situation when all of a sudden I knew where I was!
Two bridges a park bench and a signpost came into view, I'd made it across to the opposite side of the wood. From here I could follow the path south to where it meets the stream and from there I can go back across to my camp.

I was going to head back into the safety of the bushes, but by now the rain was getting down to ground level in earnest and I had mud squishing up between my toes. I was now getting wet proper and I must admit, knowing where I was, and knowing how long it was going to take me to get back made me panic a little. For the first time I felt uncomfortable with the rain, I was wet in places not in others and I was instinctively shivering.

I knew that squall wasn't far away as I thought I'd just seen a distant flash of lightning through the trees, so I made the decision to try and find somewhere sheltered and ride it out undercover.

To my left was nothing but open countryside, so I looked to my right as I headed down the now soaking path for any entrances into the undergrowth. After a few failed attempts with bushes that were just too dense to hide in I, found what appeared to be a very small very indistinct track between two trees one of which had come down in high winds many years ago I guess and acted like I guide into the deep undergrowth.

As I felt may way along the rotting bark of the tree I noticed that it had suddenly gone quiet. The rain had stopped and all that could be heard was again the distant sound of running water, and the gentle patter of rain drops falling all around me off the leaves.
I knew my way back from the stream and seeing how it had now stopped raining I took the opportunity to find it and follow it back to safety.
But then almost like I'd done earlier finding a secluded haven by the stream I came across a place I'd end up calling "the grotto".
It was a small clearing only probably the size of a small room, through the middle ran the stream, deeper and less cascading than before and very inviting for washing muddy feet! To my left was the fallen tree forming a perfect natural bridge to the other bank. No trees stood in the clearing here so the sky was for the first time completely unobscured.
But the most incredible thing was the moss covered floor, stretching both sides of the stream it was like a deep piled carpet, now spongy and wet, but as I was just as wet very comfortable to sit on.
I decided I was going to stay a while, the rain I was confident had passed and I saw flashes of lightning over to the east bolstering my confidence.
Time? Well it must have been around 2:30am by now and I was just enjoying my perfect surroundings.

I'd been in my small haven probably twenty minutes when out of the blue there was the most almighty flash of lightning! It could have come down in the wood, I didn't actually see it but the entire wood lit up like it was daylight! This was followed almost immediately by a clap of thunder so loud I felt it through the moss I was sitting on!!
I then realised this bolt had come from behind me (west) the squall hadn't passed it was here, now!
Large almost fingernail sized rain drops started hitting me with the force of small bullets, one's and two's at first but then away over my shoulder to the northwest I heard a growing in volume whoosh of rain coming along the treetops and I knew I was in trouble!

I stood up and tried to plan my escape. Am I going to be hit by lightning? Will it hit a tree and then it fall on me?? Should I stay put, or should I run like hell??
All this was in my head and by the time I'd finished thinking the sky just opened above my head and a waterfall came down!
That moment when you get in a cold shower and you tense up? Well for a second that's what I felt. But I don't know if it was because I'd just spent 2 hours becoming wet, or because I'd got other more pressing worries but it really didn't feel that bad.
I was stood in now torrential rain and it felt amazing! My shivering had stopped, and although it was hard to see because so much water was getting into my eye's I felt completely fine....better than fine, I felt amazing!

I knew by now that nobody in their right mind would be out in this, seriously you'd have to be completely mad (he said!) so I figured I'd walk the rest of the way back to camp on the main path.
Am I really here? It was one of the most surreal walks I've ever had in my life. I would have never had thought about deliberately going out and doing what I WAS doing in the pouring rain, but it felt absolutely and totally right.... even with the risk of being stuck by lightning!
My usual "off path" route through the woods would take me around another half hour to complete but via the public path at a quick walk it would be ten minutes or so. It was both exciting and dangerous, as I'd already had one close run in with two late night bikers, if anyone came through the wood again on this path I'd have little time to hide.
I've never known it rain quite this heavy for so long as most "normal" folk get out of rain like this pretty quick. But there I was, almost drowning standing up taking a leisurely walk through the woods, I even walked through a tiny stream that had formed during the storm that was running down the side of the path almost in disbelief that my feet weren't frozen and I was still feeling remarkably comfortable.

I arrived back at my clothes at 3:40am, the rain had now eased to just constant rain, but huge drops were coming off the tree leaves and the whole aura of the wood took on a huge wet misty other world, that begged more exploration. I can't really describe it it words, but I really really didn't want to leave.

I do regret not staying that night, I probably had another hour that I could have stayed and shared in watching the wood slowly disappear into the mist and become another place before the sun came up. But thinking that I'd pushed my luck enough for one night, what with one thing and another I decided to put my dry clothes on and return to the modern world.

On my way out of the wood I did smell burning wood though, maybe it was someones garden fire from the night before, or maybe that bolt of lightning really did come down that close! Whatever, I never saw any evidence of it and it's probably for the best anyway!

Lessons I learned that night?

First and foremost. Being naked in the rain is an incredible experience!!... IF DONE CORRECTLY!
Know your limits but be willing to push them. The only way to find a limit is to go to it, see if your comfortable being a little uncomfortable where you are, then push a little bit more.
Never be scared to back off. (see above!)
Make careful notes on the temperatures you are comfortable with and happy to become wet in.
Keep a real time radar app on your mobile. Know what the weather is likely to do. I was lucky in a way, as I knew it was going to rain, but I also knew that temperatures behind the weather front was going to stay mild. In my case the temperature went from 16'c down to 10'c a temperature I could cope with.
If you're visiting the woods in spring or late autumn that 16 degrees could plunge to below 10 with a gusty wind easily taking you well below that comfortable zone, and if you're far away from your clothes a potentially dangerous one!
That fetches me to this point. Never visit the woods naked when its wet AND windy. With wind, what ever temperature it is, it will feel much much colder once you get wet, with even a light breeze.
I've got to say it because of safety, but it probably wouldn't stop me from visiting the woods again in such conditions because it's almost like a drug. but don't go during thunderstorms!.....Obvious reasons!
If like myself you don't want to be seen by anyone, always be on your guard. It's easy to forget where you are and what condition (naked!) you're in especially when its raining, people can pop up on you without you noticing!
Another point, and this might seem a little counter intuitive. But don't give up too quickly if you're trying out walking in the rain.
Yes you're going to become cold and you'll shiver, but as long as the temperature isn't too silly (cold) your body will acclimatise once you're completely wet. I felt cold right up until I became completely wet, I now believe that the process of becoming wet is the hardest part, after that you can just enjoy it.

Lastly, take a towel! I didn't, and had to put dry clothes on a soaking wet body Urghhhhh!

Sorry that's been a bit of an epic tale, but it was my first experience of naked wood walking and as far as I'm concerned unforgettable!