Intrepid chap trods Britain, mile after mile with but a smile

LONDON - Wearing little more than sun screen, socks and boots, Steve Gough is walking the length of Britain to celebrate the joys of nudity. Efficiency isn't one of them.

His 847-mile trek has been hampered by eight arrests, an examination at a psychiatric hospital and several nights in jail. This week, he's starting over after Scottish police shipped him back to his starting point in Cornwall for a court appearance.

But the 44-year-old truck driver is undaunted.

"I am celebrating myself as a human being," said Gough. "We have all been brought up and conditioned to think our body is something to be ashamed of. We are made to feel bad about ourselves and that is damaging society. I am determined to carry on."

Gough left Land's End in southwest England on June 16 bound for John O'Groats in the far north of Scotland, hoping to cover about 20 miles a day on foot.

One day and 15 miles later, he was arrested in St. Ives and charged with breach of the peace. The case was abandoned after magistrates found he had not committed a criminal offense.

Three days later, he was arrested in the coastal resort of Newquay and charged with offending public decency. He appeared - stark naked - in court Monday. The court forced him to wear a blanket but did not impose a fine.

The intrepid rambler insists he is not a nudist, but a person who wants to "enlighten the public, as well as the authorities that govern us, that the freedom to go naked in public is a basic human right."

Apart from being beaten up in St. Ives on June 18, and told by a farmer in Yorkshire to "put on your trousers," Gough said public reaction had been largely positive.

Gough said he first became "involved in all this naked stuff" 10 years ago when he visited a nudist beach and "thought it was nice how people wandered around nice and relaxed."

He says that eventually alienated his partner, the mother of his children ages 5 and 7. They are separated.

There is no law in Britain against public nudity, although there are laws against indecent exposure or any behavior likely to cause "harassment, alarm or distress."

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