A flashaholic dream outing

Being flashaholics, we keep our interests alive by organizing outings among ourselves. Unfortunately, there are not many places we can go that are interesting, safe enough, open property to try out our flashlights. The dream outing came when our local ghost club organized its regular ghoulish tours.
Bring along a torchlight the invitation says. Its a chance not to be missed. We brought not one but more. Our arsenals include stingers, ROPs, M3Ts, A2s, Nuwais. It also fun picking out other flashaholics we haven't met before. We found them (and they found us) by beam strength and compulsive desire to shine at distant objects. We met Mag users who asked how we got our Maglights so bright. One lady brought a Maglight 6D but she isn't using it much to conserve batteries. The rest are using mostly LEDs and other cheap lights. We were using rechargeables and have plenty of fresh ones with us. We were worried that the bright flashlights will affect others night vision and spoil their fun. This is not a problem by defocussing the Maglight-ROP for more flood light and turning it on when needed and using the dimmer A2 LED. For sure flashlights wouldn't help find ghosts but they are useful to surprise graveyard lurkers and keep the group safe.

That sounds like a great time and a lot of fun!!

I plan on doing some of that myself this summer...

Where abouts do you do your ghost hunting?

In Singapore.

We have mixed pot of 4 cultures so plenty of underworld entities. There is a flying vampire ghost (Pontianak) which can be spotted with powerful flashlights (turned out to be a pigeon caught by surprise). We met 2 guys from another group dressed as priests from Hell going about in some kind of graveyard ritual. Also a car followed by a group of guys in a pickup with something covered in the middle. Probably trying to bury a body in a hurry. Help! I getting spooked myself.

Firebladz said:

Where abouts do you do your ghost hunting?

Click to expand...

This reminds me of my "ghosthunting" experience and a flashlight....

When my (now) wife and I went to Edinburgh Scotland to get married this March, we took one of the many ghost tours that are offered in the touristy part of town. We took the one that (supposedly) is the "real" one that doesn't use masked people jumping out from the shadows (called "jumperooters" in Scotland) to scare the customers. They claim their spirit encounters are real and that they don't have to resort to tricks.

The tour guide leads a short walking tour of Edinburgh, which is actually quite small, and discusses the living conditions found there hundreds of years ago. The tour culminates in the Greyfriars Kirkyard (churchyard) which is also a cemetery that has been in use for hundreds of years. Since the tour is at night, I had my L4 out to make sure that my wife and I didn't trip over the numerous tombstones through which we had to navigate. I used it on low (McE2S switch) to preserve night vision and not to ruin the ambiance for anyone. It really is a creepy place, even if you're not convinced of the existence of ghosts or spirits, as I am not.

The tour actually enters a tomb, now empty, that supposedly belonged to George "Bloody" MacKenzie, an historic figure infamous for brutally suppressing a 17th-Century Scottish religious movement. It is in this tomb that supposedly hundreds of people on tours such as this have been attacked by the resident spirit and actually physically injured.

Unfortunately, this tour DOES use the same method as other tours to scare the guests at the tour's climax: a jumperooter. When this poor fellow jumped into the doorway of the tomb and growled at us, I extended my L4 straight at him and pushed the button -- out of sheer reflex when confronted with a noise in a dark place. I'm sure I must have temporarily blinded the poor guy, with his dark-acclimated eyes. I know the L4 lit up the inside of the tomb like daylight. The tour guide observed, "Oh, someone must have a torch in the back!" I should think so!

My wife and I took the flashlight ghost tour of the Queen Mary, an old passenger liner docked in Long Beach. It starts with a formal dinner and then a psychic guide walks everyone (group size limited to 30) down through the darkened bowels of the ship where ghosts of various unfortunates lurk. The tour culminates in the old first class swimming pool at the midnight hour where once a murder occurred.

Lighting is purposefully kept low and flashlights are issued to the guests (one 2D dollar store flashlight per couple) so no one trips and breaks anything. The tour provides an interesting mix of people including a number who have seen ghosts, who really believe, who are humoring their spouses, or who are entertaining high maintenance babes (as it is NOT a cheap evening). The young psychic lady guide was entertaining and appeared sincere in her presentation.

Because of the formal ambience of the dinner and as I didn't want to spoil things with a too bright light, I took along 2 low key Fenix L1Ps for my wife and I, running on nimhs with lithium backups. They were perfectly appropriate and of course put out more and more useful light than the issue 2Ds. We ran them for most of the 2 hour tour without dimming and got several comments, especially from the guide who does this all the time.

No one else bought along their own lights although some used their cell phones as lights in the darkest passages. In case we actually did see a ghost, I also bought a Streamlight Propoly Lux 4AA in my suit jacket (where it fits fine) so I could make sure....but none showed. I did enjoy seeing the engines and working machinery of a big ocean liner, especially in the dark and gloom. Good atmosphere.

All in all, it was interesting to do once - nice dinner and all - but probably too expensive to do twice ($110 per person, including dinner and gratuities).

For the hardcore flashoholics and ghost hunters, try the remaining forrests and wilderness areas in Vietnam. Round trip airfare from the central US ~ $1,300. $10/day in a standard hotel. Go alone out into the wilderness with your most trusted torch, it is said that if you go alone you'll encoutner the ghosts of Vietnamese army soldiers and American G.I.s.

My family and I took a tour of the Shasta Caverns last summer . During the tour we would go into dark passages that open out into huge halls. The guide would then turn on his 3D maglite and try to light up some features for the group to look at.
I had brought along a Aleph 2 running a BB750 w/ 5 W on a VB1 RCR123. This tiny thing light up the whole ceiling( it was a huge area). Pretty soon the guide came by and ask to see this incredible light. He was taken back when I told him what it cost as compared to his $20.00 mag.