Baring it all with Sheila – by Pat Kane

There has been an alarming amount of stripping off (and talking of stripping off) in recent blogs and this reminded me of an earlier incident in Sheila’s life.

Sheerness to Vlissingen ferry

In 1982, Sheila organised a cycling trip to Holland for five women.  Leaving our poor young children in the care of their fathers, we set off by train to Sheerness to catch the overnight ferry to Vlissingen. Sheila arranged the whole thing – train tickets, sea crossing, maps and youth hostels – we were all in our mid to late thirties but fairly hard up!  As you might expect, the organisation was superb. The only slight blip was when we found ourselves cycling along a very busy stretch of dual carriageway and a kind Dutchman rolled down his window and yelled at us that this was forbidden.

Olau ferries

In those days, there was a rather luxurious service across the North Sea run by the Olau Line, a Danish company.  The highlight was the smorgasbord, which was a very exciting concept for those of us who had never travelled to Scandinavia. There was the most delicious selection of smoked and fresh fish, open sandwiches and salads.  And you could go back as often as you liked.

Smorgasbord

But, before the smorgasbord, we just had to take advantage of the sauna and the tiny swimming pool in the bowels of the ship. Four out of the five of us had brought our swimming costumes but Marta, who is a Czech doctor and the only one who had used a sauna before, was having none of it.  She explained that when her mother used to take her to the sauna in Prague, nobody wore swimsuits.  In fact, we just wouldn’t benefit from the experience at all if we didn’t go naked. So, as Marta is rather a forceful personality and there was no-one else around, we all did as we were told and stepped into the sauna.

Plan of boat showing sauna and swimming pool right down in the bowels of the ship
Plan of boat showing sauna and swimming pool right down in the bowels of the ship

Everyone (except Marta) was a little embarrassed when a male crew member suddenly entered the cabin to stoke up the charcoal.  He didn’t even blink! It was then that I realised for the first time that naked people are really quite anonymous. The following day, however, we did draw the line at using the mixed showers in the Dutch youth hostel, suddenly feeling very middle aged and British.

Holiday snaps
Holiday snaps

You may wonder what all this has to do with Kilimanjaro.  It is simply meant to reassure Sheila that, should she have to take off all her clothes and go to the aid of a fellow traveller suffering from hypothermia, as discussed in the blog of 24th February, she should not be bashful. That person will be very grateful for the skin-to-skin heat and will have no idea afterwards whose body it came from.

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