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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Adam Cailler & Bradley Jolly

'My drug-fuelled visit to 'naked zombie' nudist camp still gives me nightmares'

A man remains haunted after stumbling upon a naturist resort and being "surrounded by naked old men" 25 years ago.

Ben Myers, 47, recalled how he accidentally visited Spielplatz – which is German for playground – a nudist camp in Hertfordshire.

Spielplatz, also known as Bricket Wood, is the longest-operating naturist resort in the UK, having opened in 1929, and has 65 houses on site.

When Ben "got too high" after work in 1997, he and a friend took a drive and ended up at Bricket Wood.

"I was driving around this nudist camp paranoid, scared, bewildered and bemused – and it was one way," Ben, a media company chief executive, told the Daily Star.

“I was looking at people that shouldn't be naked . . . and then the car broke down.

"We then found ourselves surrounded by naked old people like a scene from a zombie film or The Walking Dead. We were too scared to get out of the car, but we had to and pushed it to the entrance of the place for the RAC to come and fix it.

"It still scars me today – hash, old cars and nudists don't mix."

Those who live at Bricket Wood even admit "society doesn't see it (naturism) as a normal thing".

One resident said last year: "The problem is, people do not see enough naked bodies, de-sexualised naked bodies, particularly as children and teenagers."

Last year, a Hertfordshire Live reporter visited the naturist site and spoke to several residents.

The journalist wrote: "Society never prepares you for the moment when a man answers the door in the nude.

"Nudity is completely accepted as the norm [there].

"There are around 50 people who live there, all of whom are happier without clothes than with. Wrapped up in my knitted dress and huge fluffy coat, I am the outsider intruding on their world, not the other way around, although they never make me feel that way."

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