Recently, I have had a fascination with wanting to try out hiking in the darkness of the night. I’ve been doing a lot of reading about...

Recently, I have had a fascination with wanting to try out hiking in the darkness of the night.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about night hiking and what the benefits might be, including being able to stay cooler in the summer heat, experiencing the fascinating sounds of the nocturnal wildlife, and seeing the night sky up above.

samuellison.com/2025/03/1…

My first attempt at taking a long exposure of the moon with the #NikonD7000, a 14 year old DSLR.

My first attempt at taking a long exposure of the moon with the #NikonD7000, a 14 year old DSLR.

My Experience Hiking in the Dark

Recently, I have had a fascination with wanting to try out hiking in the darkness of the night.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about night hiking and what the benefits might be, including being able to stay cooler in the summer heat, experiencing the fascinating sounds of the nocturnal wildlife, and seeing the night sky up above.

“There’s something magical about hiking in nature at night. You just can’t replicate the sights and the sounds of a nightime hike in the daytime. It’s a fantastic way to reflect after a frantically busy day."¹

And don’t worry, I’ve also been looking into the various dangers that come along with hiking at night too. In Australia (at least in Victoria), we don’t have predatorial animals that are interested in humans, so the most common dangers are going to do with the lack of visibility, and these include your poor visibility, which increases your risk of getting lost and increases your risk of having trips and falls.

“It’s also easier to get lost when you’re hiking at night. The lack of light can make it difficult to see landmarks, and you may not be able to see the trail as well. If you do get lost, it’s important to stay calm and retrace your steps. If you’re unable to find your way back, call for help."²

Well, on Monday the 10th of March 2025, I finally got to experience hiking in the darkness!

My wife and I checked our weather app and it was going to be a scorcher. That meant, if we were going to enjoy a more comfortable hike, we would have to do it under the cover of the early morning sky.

Initially, we wanted to wake up at 5:00 AM and I predicted we would be leaving home by 6:00 AM and arriving to the site by the crack of dawn at 7:00 AM. Fortunately though, we actually ended up getting to the site at 6:00 AM, and it was still pitch black by the time we got there.

The Experience

So there I was, standing in the middle of the darkness with my wife at Werribee Gorge, about to do the Long and Short Circuit Track combined.

Luckily, I am always prepared when I go hiking. I always pack my essentials in my trusty kit, and this includes a good quality torch.

My torch was obviously my first go to. And we had to decide if we would try the hike up the mountain with our night vision adjusted eyes, or use the torch. There are pros and benefits to either method, however on this occasion, the moon was not up in the sky, and there was a little cloud cover which made it extra dark.

While I probably would have enjoyed the benefits that come with not using any light source, such as a better field of view and a sense of larger surroundings, the consequences of tripping due to the low light available, and being with my wife as someone else to take care of, meant that we chose to use the light source.

The torch I have was powerful, and it was good to see that after a couple months of storage and no use in my kit that it still had a good 99% of battery available. If you’d like to check out the torch, it’s a Shadowhawk Tactical Flashlight and is available on Amazon.

I’m not sure how accurate the claims are to lumens, but I know from my personal experience with it that it was more than ample for my needs with hiking. Having the ability to have a large arc of light, all the way to a nice and slim, concentrated beam.

I also cannot comment on the safety of the included rechargeable lithium battery, but it has not exploded in my bag as yet!³

Another thing I can comment on though is the life of the battery. I used it for a full hour straight prior to daylight hitting the summit of our hike, and the battery dropped 7% - so there’s plenty of juice to last you the night, and if you bring a good battery pack with you as part of your kit, you wont have issues.

Strange Sounds

While commencing our hike, the first thing I noticed was the serenity of the night. You know how when you wake up during the night and the sounds seem amplified? Everything is much louder that you could pretty much hear a pin drop? Well that’s how it felt out there in the darkness, and you could hear every little rustle in the trees and shrub. All the sounds are much more prominent, which, if I were by myself for my first experience in the darkness in a forest, I would have been pretty frightened. I highly recommend bringing some company for your first attempt.

I was frightened enough when I first got into hiking and would go on trails by myself during the day. Hearing new sounds and figuring out what they were kept me hyper-vigilant. Multiply that by I don’t know how much in the darkness, but multiply it nonetheless.

And then came the next challenge.

You see, I enjoy hiking using trekking poles. Especially when I have a heavy kit on my back. And holding a torch in one hand, kind of removes the ability to be able to use my poles effectively.

I’ll need to invest on a headlamp I think, which includes red light to keep my night vision from being affected as much. If anyone has any suggestions for one that works well for them, and has good battery life (and preferably can be recharged via USB), I would love to read your recommendations in the discussions below.

Putting that little difficulty aside, I did manage to make the summit, and by the time we reached the top, daylight was peaking through the sky and I was able to pack the torch away.

Serene Views & Wildlife

On the way down the other side, we stopped for a break to view the river flowing through the gorge below. It was astonishing. The sun barely creeping over the horizon and starting to peak over the mountain to one side and shining over to the next as the river flow made beautiful relaxing sounds. I did not get to make a sound recording of it on this occasion, but I will be sure to do so on my next one and share it with you.

As the light kept coming through, when we did spot wildlife, it was easier to take video. One of the fascinating animals we got to see was a Wallaby, and I managed to record a video of it as it watched us in as much curiosity as we had for it.

One of the best things about hiking places like Werribee Gorge is being close to a river. The sounds are relaxing as the water hits the rocks beneath. You always have a source of water should you need it (with a filtration system, of course), and you’re actually more likely to see wildlife during certain periods of the day, as it’s a much sought after resource!

There’s also a really cool portion of the walk on this trail which has you clinging onto the side of a rock-face with water beneath you. It’s got cable around it ready for you to hold onto which makes it that much more fun to experience.

We managed to make it around the mountain prior to the sun getting too high up, which meant the UV wasn’t too strong yet and we could finish our walk around the Eastern side of the mountain, known as the Short Circuit Walk, which sees you doing a few more steep sections prior to making your way back down where we parked our car. This section of the walk was challenging enough to get the heart rate going and the sweats on prior to melting in the days heat!

We finished the hike around 10:00 AM and made it back to the air conditions vehicle for the drive back home.

Conclusion

Would I recommend night hiking, and would I do it again?

Yes, absolutely. I plan on doing it again this weekend if the opportunity arises, again with my wife. Let’s see if we can tackle the Lerderderg Gorge and I will let you all know how that goes!

And then I plan on doing some of these even later during the night, perhaps straight after work or something and tackling them on my lonesome for some ample time to record natures sounds and take some amazing photographs.

I hope that you enjoyed reading this article and would love to hear from you below. What’s your experience hiking in the darkness? Have you done it before? Would you do it again? If you haven’t done it before, would you consider giving it a go?

Footnotes:

Interesting article from an employee as to the effects of being a federal employee in the United States currently. A lot more than what we...

Interesting article from an employee as to the effects of being a federal employee in the United States currently.

A lot more than what we are able to read on mainstream media.

weidok.al/2025/02/2…

It takes a (Global) Village to Fight Censorship “It’s World Day Against Cyber Censorship, a great occasion to remind ourselves of the...

It takes a (Global) Village to Fight Censorship

“It’s World Day Against Cyber Censorship, a great occasion to remind ourselves of the early optimism surrounding the internet. Once envisioned as a force for global connection and free-flowing information, the internet has instead (d)evolved into a place where access to knowledge and privacy are increasingly under threat. Big Tech has monopolized its infrastructure, and governments all over the world are too eager to capitalize.”

blog.torproject.org/fighting-…

I am playing around with #Obsidian to see if I can use it in my workflow for blog writing on my website. I tried #Tangent really quickly but...

I am playing around with #Obsidian to see if I can use it in my workflow for blog writing on my website. I tried #Tangent really quickly but it just stays on a loading screen when creating a workspace?

I did my first #NightHike in #Darkness on the weekend in #WerribeeGorge. As the daylight came out, so did the wallabies! Here’s a cute...

I did my first #NightHike in #Darkness on the weekend in #WerribeeGorge. As the daylight came out, so did the wallabies! Here’s a cute video of one I took:

makertube.net/w/fcbFk72…

Some more beautiful #postcards have arrived in the mail today from #PostCrossing!

Some more beautiful #postcards have arrived in the mail today from #PostCrossing!

Done! I have managed to get replies showing up on my website when I syndicate blog posts to places like #Mastodon, #Pixelfed and so forth. I...

Done!

I have managed to get replies showing up on my website when I syndicate blog posts to places like #Mastodon, #Pixelfed and so forth. I also managed to get #syndication links showing under a post, linking to where else that same post can be found when cross-posted!

Check out the example on my website: samuellison.com/2025/02/2…

Trying to figure out how to get replies to show up on my website automatically when #syndicated with other platforms. See if I can get the...

Trying to figure out how to get replies to show up on my website automatically when #syndicated with other platforms. See if I can get the Syndicated To: links to also show today. @shellsharks@shellsharks.social got me motivated with his website.

I promise, I will look into #PESOS later!

So I have gone through all my accounts and managed to remove myself from #CentralizedSocialMedia. I have added placeholders on my profiles...

So I have gone through all my accounts and managed to remove myself from #CentralizedSocialMedia. I have added placeholders on my profiles linking to my website at samuellison.com and am no longer posting to #Facebook, #Instagram, #X, #YouTube or #LinkedIn.

Give those a few months and I will close them off completely.

So I have disabled #Vanadium on my #ChromeOS and replaced it with just the #Tor browser for mobile phone browsing, with #Kagi search. While...

So I have disabled #Vanadium on my #ChromeOS and replaced it with just the #Tor browser for mobile phone browsing, with #Kagi search. While #Mullvad works better on Desktop for “speed” when it comes to needing fast download speeds. I don’t tend to need to use fast internet from my mobile phone and find myself just doing #procrastibrowsing of news sites.

So I’ve moved my #OpenSimulator region over to #NeverWorld. neverworldgrid.com #Metaverse

So I’ve moved my #OpenSimulator region over to #NeverWorld.

neverworldgrid.com

#Metaverse

I feel #Liberated! I have finally managed to delete as many apps as possible from my phone (fully #degoogled too). I now use Airplane mode...

I feel #Liberated! I have finally managed to delete as many apps as possible from my phone (fully #degoogled too). I now use Airplane mode with wifi calling exclusively at home, and only turn on my 4G/5G mobile connection at locations when and if I need it (no tracking from providers).

Essentially feels like I have de-phoned myself but still have one in my pocket for emergency calls should I need it. Should the family need me urgently? They know my work landline. We survived pre 90’s.

Moving away from #TapandGo and starting to use #Cash wherever possible as a movement towards regaining more #privacy.

Moving away from #TapandGo and starting to use #Cash wherever possible as a movement towards regaining more #privacy.

#Tor relay successfully setup and seeing connections run through my server.

#Tor relay successfully setup and seeing connections run through my server.

I’m really enjoying #FreeTube. YouTube without ads, able to subscribe to my favourite creators and avoid #fingerprinting, #tracking or...

I’m really enjoying #FreeTube. YouTube without ads, able to subscribe to my favourite creators and avoid #fingerprinting, #tracking or #algorithms.

I’ve enabled #Snowflake on my system, and will setup a VM as middle/guard relay for #Tor to help the network.

I’ve enabled #Snowflake on my system, and will setup a VM as middle/guard relay for #Tor to help the network.

Today I wrote an article about the #Metaverse and my first week back working on coding my own survival game project within #OpenSimulator....

Today I wrote an article about the #Metaverse and my first week back working on coding my own survival game project within #OpenSimulator.

Come check out my article on my corner of the interwebs on my #Indieweb website.

Let me know what you think!

samuellison.com/2025/03/0…

My Week in the Metaverse

While I have been a member of both the SecondLife and OpenSimulator platforms for some time, let’s say, 16 years on Second Life, and 1 good year on OpenSimulator, it did not actually hit me that the Metaverse was already here with us until Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg wanted to create his own branded “Metaverse” to rule them all.

There was talk about Second Life briefly being the answer to the metaverse, but in reality, it does not tick all the boxes (think proprietary, centralized)

And then, I found the Fediverse, and learned about the Indieweb and Small Web movements, and it became much clearer to me.

OpenSimulator, the Metaverse

So, why do I consider OpenSimulator to tick all the boxes when it comes to being more along the lines of what the metaverse should truly be?

After being a member of the Fediverse for a few months now and learning about decentralization and enshittification and all those fancy words, I came to realise that the OpenSimulator platform, which seems from the outside to be just a clone of SecondLife, is actually the complete opposite.

Firstly, it is Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), and secondly, and most importantly, it is completely decentralized. Allowing people to create their worlds (think, rooms) and connect them to existing grids (think, servers).

So, not only can you host your own worlds on an existing grid and create an account and personal identity on that grid (or server), but you also have the ability to do it yourself, host your own grid with as many worlds as you wish, and connect it to what is known as the Hypergrid, and still be interconnected between all the different worlds, grids and so forth.

Another way to look at it is:

• Region = World, or, Planet
• Grid = Server, or, Universe

You can add a planet to someone else’s universe, or you can create your own universe with your own rules and connect it, or not, to the Metaverse, or, Multiverse, officially known as the Hypergrid.

And it will always be there, no matter what happens to the rest of the universes (grids) out there.

What did I do?

I decided to host my own Region (or World) and connect it to the Grid (Universe) known as OSGrid which allows registered users to connect their own regions to their grid, at no cost (besides of course your own hosting costs).

This means, I used an existing avatar account to make the owner of my region and self-host it!

By default, region sizes are setup in the OpenSimulator configuration as 256x256 meters (which is also the size of regions on Second Life). It’s actually possible to run much larger region sizes, or to host multiple regions together and place them next to each other to suits your needs.

In my case, I am running a single region, the size of 4x4 (16) regions. Basically, 1024x1024m in land size, and I can do whatever I like with it.

It’s currently bare though, and here’s a screenshot of it in its current state.

What am I working on?

I want to build a world based off of 28 Years Later. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, I highly recommend that you do.

I love the idea of having a city which is going through a Zombie Apocalypse and the player having to fight their way through an infested city by smacking zombie NPCs and gathering resources, until they come across a stranded island that appears to be a safe-haven.

This safe-haven will be a village with roles for people to take on and to live their merry lives on. Roles might include things like farmers, smiths, carpenters and hunters. Hunters would go out back into the city, looking for valuable resources, such as metals, more foods, ammunition and medicines.

A fun survival style game.

How do you accomplish that on the Metaverse? Are you able to code?

Yes, you can code on the Metaverse!

Not only can you build your world with 3d mesh models and materials, in my case, assets I purchased from the Unity Asset Store and converted them into usable formats using blender; but you can code anything your heart desires in OpenSimulator (and yes, in Second Life too).

Both OpenSimulator and Second Life have their own scripting languages.

Second Life uses the Linden Scripting Language (LSL) and OpenSimulator has a highly expanded, yet similar language known as OpenSimulator Scripting Language (OSSL).

Here’s a snippet of code so you can see how easy it is:

default {
    touch_start(integer num) {
        key player = llDetectedKey(0); // Get the avatar's key
        string playerName = llDetectedName(0); // Get the avatar's name

        // Send registration request to the data server
        llRegionSay(12345, "Register|" + (string)player + "|" + playerName);

        // Notify the player directly
        llSay(0, "Registration request sent, " + playerName + ".");
    }
}

You can view more of my source that I have been working on within my GitHub Repository!

This is just a registration board that players can click on to register their avatar as a player in the system I am working on, but there’s way more to do - such as having a HUD and floating text above avatars that tracks the players current survival stats, such as Health, Stamina, Hunger, Thirst and Infection as well as a multitude of other things, such as Inventory slots, Coins/Money and so forth.

How does one visit?

To visit places on the OpenSimulator metaverse, you need a virtual world viewer. And you need the version that allows connection to multiple grids and not just the default Second Life proprietary grid.

The best browser currently is the Firestorm viewer.

You will need the OpenSimulator version which you can grab from here: https://www.firestormviewer.org/os-operating-system/

There is support for Windows, Mac and Linux versions. I am using Linux and it works fine.

You can visit my land and come say hello when I am there, by adding the OSGrid option to your logins (by clicking on “Click to add more grids”, creating an account through the browsers “Create an Account” link and logging in.

Once you are in, open your world map in the view and search for “counterearth”. I will probably rename the region later to something that matches the RP game I wish to make and update this article when that is done.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, there is not much to see in my world currently, but I endeavour to post more updates on my proceedings and discuss the scripts I have come up with in further articles - so be sure to add this RSS to your reader to keep getting updates on my posts!

I hope that this has also inspired you into looking into the Metaverse and seeing how you could contribute with your coding knowledge to make the experience better for everyone out there! I believe the GitHub repository for OpenSimulator can be found here: https://github.com/opensim/opensim and is coded in the C# language.

Have fun all!

Now that I am on #Linux, just playing around with my old #Nikon D7000 and editing in #DarkTable. I know, the sharpness isn’t perfect,...

Now that I am on #Linux, just playing around with my old #Nikon D7000 and editing in #DarkTable. I know, the sharpness isn’t perfect, it’s a loan camera and I don’t have the lenses I want. I will get myself a #Sony #A6700 soon and some proper lenses though!

Come to think of it, I should have tried Focus Stacking. Although it would all have to be manual with this old thing :D

Here are some more beautiful postcards I’ve received from #Postcrossing members around the world. I got myself a folder with postcard...

Here are some more beautiful postcards I’ve received from #Postcrossing members around the world.

I got myself a folder with postcard sleeves to keep the collection growing :)

So, I am officially on the #Federated #Metaverse of #OpenSimulator and #SelfHosting my own region server with a land size of 1024mx1024m,...

So, I am officially on the #Federated #Metaverse of #OpenSimulator and #SelfHosting my own region server with a land size of 1024mx1024m, or, 1km2.

Can’t wait to get coding in the OSSL language and learn the ropes, and build my own virtual world!

I joined #OSGrid: www.osgrid.org/.

Expect me to provide you with updates, screenshots of my progress and all. My avatar on there is Temujin Calidius should you wish to find me in the metaverse!

Watching #wargames

Watching #wargames

Well, the good news is I got my region going on the #OpenSim #Metaverse. I went with #OSGrid as I was able to easily add my own region to...

Well, the good news is I got my region going on the #OpenSim #Metaverse. I went with #OSGrid as I was able to easily add my own region to it. It is a 4x4 (1024x1014) region (16 sims) - I should be able to build quite a bit on this.

I will post more when I have more!