Walker vows ambition is to keep naked

AFTER a detour of 1,400 miles, an unscheduled interruption of 19 days, a night in a psychiatric hospital and an appearance before English magistrates, the naked rambler trudging from Land’s End to John o’Groats is back in Scotland again.

As Steve Gough jumped out of the car in which he had hitched a ride back to Selkirk yesterday afternoon, he vowed to complete his goal to walk the length of Britain dressed in only blue socks, hiking boots, a rucksack and a bushman’s hat.

On his epic journey so far Mr Gough, 44, from Eastleigh in Hampshire, has already been chaperoned to police stations 11 times, arrested five times, cautioned four times and had three charges for breach of the peace and public order offences, all dropped.

On 18 June, two days after embarking on his nude quest, he was also beaten up by a gang of youths, resulting in a trip to hospital to fix a broken nose and stitch a gash above his eye.

Less determined ramblers would have given up weeks ago. But Mr Gough’s resolve to finish his journey is simply strengthened by such inconveniences, demonstrated by the fact that every mile of his walk so far has been completed sans clothes.

His original intention in completing the 847-mile journey was threefold, he told The Scotsman.

"The main reason for all this is to celebrate myself as a human being and to assert that both I and my body are simply OK, and that there’s no difference between me and anybody else," he said.

"My body is not obscene, indecent or offensive so I don’t particularly understand all the reaction against it.

"Part of it is to try and change British indecency laws and establishment attitudes.

"The third intention of doing this walk is part protest as well, because I am walking around not harming anyone and yet I keep getting arrested."

Despite such determined belief in what he is striving to achieve, however, Mr Gough yesterday conceded that a change in his strategy may be necessary if he is to succeed.

In the 20 or so miles that he has so far completed in Scotland since crossing the Border on 20 July, three of the five arrests have occurred.

In the town of Duns, he spent a night in the cells before being released without charge.

After keeping a low profile for a while before setting off again, he reached Selkirk on 31 July, where he was promptly arrested again and taken to a psychiatric hospital near Hawick, where he was kept for a night before being released and pronounced sane.

Just north of Selkirk, on 3 August, he was again arrested after Lothian and Borders Police realised he failed to answer bail after appearing at Bodmin Magistrates Court in Cornwall. The Cornish police made a 1,400-mile round trip to escort him back to the south-west to appear in court the next day.

Mr Gough said: "What I am doing now is, if I am approached by the police then I will stop and put my shorts on straight away. I need to try and keep going a bit.

"When I did this in England they would just say ‘don’t do it again, naughty boy’ and warn me, so in ten minutes I can go again and take the shorts off.

"In Scotland, they seem not to have those discretionary powers and end up taking me to the cells and keep me overnight only for the charges to be dropped the next day. I wouldn’t say the laws are tougher up here but the police do seem to make a bit more of a meal about it and then drop the charges. It’s a change of tactics because obviously the aim is to complete the walk. If I was stopped all the time then I wouldn’t move."

A flag poking from the top of his rucksack reads "Freedom to be yourself". This attitude can, he says, be traced back to a trip to Studland Beach in Bournemouth, Britain’s most famous nudist seaside resort.

Successive trips to non-nudist beaches with his wife and two children, now aged seven and five, saw him taking off his shorts and enjoying a swim.

The public’s reaction when they encounter him on his walk has been mixed.

He said: "If I say hello, then they will say ‘hello’ back. I have experienced other extremes where if people feel awkward or embarrassed they’ll fill fix their gaze at something in the distance or just look away. But others will make a nice joke, give me encouragement about it or even start up a conversation about why I am doing it. I have even been bought lunch by people and given money when I was running short."

Allowing him to develop an all-over tan and enjoy the best that the British countryside has to offer, the current heatwave sweeping across Britain has so far been kind to Mr Gough.

He is also resolute that the possible inclemency of the Scottish climate, together with the scourge of the ubiquitous midge will not present any significant obstacles. He insists that his bivi bag, in which he sleeps each night, can provide him with shelter within minutes. Keeping on the move and a full midge net for the night keep the biting insects away.

The next part of his journey will take him through the countryside round Edinburgh, but due to media attention and his wish to complete the journey, precise details are off limits.

"I am just a country boy. I now want a bit of a rest and will be seeking to go undercover a bit, choosing rural routes and trying to avoid being picked up again by the police. My route was never fixed in stone and it may alter on a daily basis to make sure I get there, otherwise it will defeat the whole object."