The NEW Post Your Campsite/gear/knife/hiking/anything Outdoorsy Pic Thread!

Wow, great pics HM!
I went on a roadtrip with my girlfriend to the south of Belgium and to the north of France last sunday. Not really camping or 'wilderness survival' but more some outdoor tourism so to say. I hope I may post these pics here too? Some of you might appreciate some medieval castles:-).

First of we drove 200 km to Bouillon, the small city around the famous stronghold of Godfriend of Bouillon, who started the first crucade and succesfully reconquered Jerusalem from the Muslims. First of, some different views of his castle, which was strategically built on top of a mountain which was positioned in a meander from the Semois river.

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From the highest tower in the castle, you've got an amazing view on the city beneath and the Semois river. The fact that it was foggy did add up to the mysticism around the castle.
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We did some hiking as well, but the pics taken there aren't very good so I won't post those. We also visited Sédan in northern France. The castle over here should be the biggest in continental Europe but it wasn't possible to grasp its size because it's really situated in the middle of the town, not really elevated so yeah you could walk around it and it would take you some time, but you didn't get a good idea of how the castle looked like entirely as you could in Bouillon. They were also renovating large portions of this castle so that didn't do well for the overall experience of this castle, seeing the work in progress everywhere you went.
Anyway, some pics:

The walls certainly where pretty high:-)
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The weather was not really good. Very foggy and cloudy overall with rain from time to time. We did have a good time nonetheless, did some nice walks in the forests around Bouillon too. We hade a good time:-)
 
As far as I'm concerned, you can post those pictures anytime GS!! Castles are fascinating, and I long to do a castle tour in Europe one of these days. It does indeed look like the fog and rainy weather enhanced the mystique surrounding those castles. I'm assuming there are still larger castles in the British Isles?

Awesome pictures! I got a sense of the scale of these castles :thumbup:
 
Hmm, it seems that I did not correctly express myself. The Sédan castle is not the largest castle in Europe, but it does claim to be the largest fortified castle (or fortress) in Europe. There are a lot of fancy-pantsy castles all over Europe but not all of them had the goal of being a true stronghold, ready for battle/protection of the inhabitants of the region. Most of these castles have a very long history, by the way. They usually started out as a smaller fortified church or town, next to which (or in later stadia -upon which) additional elements have been built. The Sédan castle for example had strong towers built around previously constructed towers. I imagine there are quite some xzibit puns that could be made around this theme. The Bouillon castle shows maquettes of the whole 'evolution' of the stronghold in one of its rooms. Very interesting. Even up until napoleonic times, additional rooms or walls were created to fit the accomodations and luxury of that time.

If I recall correctly, US troops used -or considered using- the Bouillon castle as an HQ because of its strategic location in WW2, which is very recent history. Those medieval engineers must have done something right when choosing their construction sites.

I did not have to fight off any invading forces with my Opinel, Vic Cadet or Enlan EL-02 that I had on me (or in my car) so that was a godsend indeed (I thought I'd mention what I brought with me since this is a knife forum after all:cool:).

Thanks for the reply!
 
I see! Thanks for the added info :thumbup: I had never really considered before that some castles were not built with the goal of being a functional fortress. I know what I'll be perusing on the net when taking breaks from work today... :)
 
I took toys this week! :D
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Hiked in about 5 miles and waited 'til dark to start back so I could play with my flashlights.
Supposed to be staying the night, but finished the last couple miles and came home rather than fight construction traffic on the interstate in the morning.
Besides, I took some beamshots to put on CPF:rolleyes:
 
Just spent a week in Tampa, and spent a morning wondering through the Flatlands Wilderness area. More pics in a thread later tonight.

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Owen, the reflection in the lens on that Thrunite (?) is awesome :thumbup: Nice picture AND toys! What's your favorite for all around carry and use?

Brian, good stuff, looking forward to your thread!
 
HikingMano said:
Owen, the reflection in the lens on that Thrunite (?) is awesome :thumbup: Nice picture AND toys! What's your favorite for all around carry and use?
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Thanks:) I EDC the Zebralight SC51Fw, and carry it as a backup to a Zebralight H30w in the woods. Bought a H501w to replace the H30w so I could use strictly AAs, but it malfunctioned straight out of the box, so I got a refund. These are all I normally carry:
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The others are(and pardon me as I drop into flashlight nerd mode):
-2xMalkoff MD2 with hi/lo switches integral to the bezels(loosen a fraction of a turn for low), Malkoff M60WLF and Malkoff M61N dropins.
-SF E2D body with long clip and McTC tailcap, McClicky switch, Malkoff VM-E bezel, and Malkoff M60N dropin.
-SF M3T bored for 18500 Li-ion cells, with Malkoff MD60(these were made for weaponlights using the same SF Millenium Turbohead).
This is stuff I use around home, at work, for emergencies, and to supplement my floody little EDC if I might need something more.
Malkoff used to designate neutral emitters with a "W", but have changed to a warmer tint. The newer neutrals at the same color temp as the old are exclusive to oveready.com and use a "N". ALL of my lights use neutral emitters, except that last one, the MD60, and it is being replaced with a neutral version, too.
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I love my Zebralights' features, but for quality and reliability, Surefire and Malkoff are hard to beat.
That's actually all of my lights except a duplicate of the headlamp, the Arc AAA-P on my keys, and a couple of old 1xAA lights.
I've had a large assortment of Surefires, mods, custom bodies and parts, etc. in the past, but now I'm keeping it simple.
 
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No problem, I'm a flashaholic too, though I haven't caught the bug as hard as you have yet. At least, I can't afford to :D I thought that M3T was a Thrunite from the front :o.

I just got the H51w I told you about previously, nice light! I supplement with a Quark 2xAA. Decently complementray pair in terms of color temp and throw/spill.

I agree that the Surefires are hard to beat for reliability and build quality. Love my stock E2DL. Haven't tried a Malkoff yet, though I did convince my friend to get a drop-in for his maglite. I haven't gotten into modding yet (beyond a clicky for my Surefire G2L, haha), but I suspect I will at some point....

I'll look for your beamshot thread on CPF :thumbup:
 
HikingMano said:
I agree that the Surefires are hard to beat for reliability and build quality. Love my stock E2DL
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Oh, that's my one other light! A E2DL bezel is usually on that body that the VM-E is on. Have gone back and forth. I had it modded with a neutral emitter, and have been beating the crap out of it for a couple of years. Dropping it on steel and concrete, getting it all gunked up and washing it in the sink or even a steam hose, activating it a couple hundred times per shift. Lots of use, usually burn a pair of R123s per night. Right now the lens is busted from where I was using the crenelations to hammer on the corner of a stuck control panel and hit the glass. The shattered glass screws up the spill, but the hotspot still looks fine. I keep meaning to see if SF will send me a new lens without sending the whole head in. Great light, but I'm trying to get away from R123s and just use 18mm cells for their greater capacity.

The beamshots were just a few mediocre ones to show the MD60, since noone has beamshots of it. That and comparing the M61N and M60N. They're in the Malkoff Junkie thread in the LED forum. Would have done better to do them at home from my deck, but it was fun playing with them in the woods.
 
Am I the only one who can't see BTII's pics anymore? I'll try a different browser later, maybe the problem is only on my end.
 
HikingMano said:
I can see it when I click on the link. But if I img tag it, it doesn't work. If I copy the img url from opening the image linked in a new tab, then it works:
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I did that the last time you posted images, but when I looked at the thread a few hours later, the images were gone again. Some kind of time dependency?
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At this point I really haven't got a clue what's causing that. Grrrrr
 
This is the same hosting site you've been using all along? Your past pics still show up just fine.
 
I can't recall exactly 'cos I use a lot of different ones for different places. I do know that I used xs.to for quite a while, photobucket for a bit [but they seem to not like knife stuff], I did quite a run of imageshack, but I think the last few have been postimage. I'll whack 'em up somewhere else if the problem persists.
 
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