Fectio
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Fort Vechten
Sundays in 2005 |
This section shows some of the pictures
made while we're guarding the tower on sundays, members
of Fectio, Corbvlo and Legio X
Gemina taking turns.
October 16th:
Last day.
The last
day should be the best. Actually, it was not the last day
of the season (we have one afternoon inside a museum
coming up next week), but surely our last day outside,
and our last day at the tower. And if the'll be no funds
next year, this may have been the very last day of our
'watch duties'! But today we had the best weather to
enjoy that posible last day. Not warm, but the brightest
of weather you can imagine. And visitors too - there was
a special weekend at the main fort, and hordes of
visitora took the chance to pay us a visit. Never a dull
moment! Just before closing time, to noce guys on their
motorbikes stopped by, and I had the chance to have some
nice pictures made..
Fectio has the tower. It's such a tranquil place
when there are no cars parked all around! |
The fort was blocked for cars, just bikes and
pedestrians allowed. Great! |
Loes and Gijs as Roman recruits. |
Basking in the sunshine. |
Watch out from below! Taking pictures for the
manual. |
Modern knight! Well, it's a Matchless V-twin 1000
cc Model-X to be precise. |
Imagine riding one of those in a joust... The one
on the right is a 1939 Triumph Speed Twin
5T 500cc. |
Packing up, ready to leave. For the very last
time? Well, for 2005 anyway. |
September
25th: Free F(or)all!
Well,
you know it's true what they say - what goes up must come
down. So when last time's 'watch duty' had been great,
this time it was a deception. The weather was fine, true,
but somehow that also cause many visitors to come and
visit the fort. And that's good of course, but most of
them came by car, and the little car park was soon filled
up. before we knew it, a number of car was parked on our
field, drawing more and more, until we had two dozen cars
parked around us. Not very nice, re-enacting on a parking
lot, I can tell you that!
Luckily, the cloud had a silver lining - my shelter
experiment went fine. A spear and two javelins tied
together, some fabric tied to the ground and - hey
presto, a Late Roman shelter! Made from material carried
on the march, this works fine when you need a spot to
leave your stuff during the day.
Hieronimus/Jeroen had fun 'guarding the tent'
and playing with other boys who came to visit. He enjoyed
his new cloack very much, too1
Pater et filius. |
Our top floor. |
A little Roman! |
Dressed-up dad. |
Tent-experiment |
Jeroen's corner. |
Looks good. |
Just for practise, I tried out an experiment to
build a Late Roman shelter. |
Andreas holds the fort. |
The field
still free from intrusive cars, a quiet day in the fall
that got quite busy..
August 21st:
Late summer.
 With the holidays
over we returned to the tower. It turned out to be a very
nice reunion, with great weather, interested visitors and
very good food! We had special guests, the Junior club of
Museum Dorestad was coming to visit us, on their annual
trip no less. We spent a very busy morning answering all
the kids' questions, dressing them up in our gear. The
kids were very enthusiastic, one of them already being a
regular expert! And when it was time for lunch, we were
kindly invited to join the group, an opportunity we would
not miss! I had Jeroen with me that morning, and a hungry
4-year old boy is not the one to miss the chance to feast
on pancakes.. It was all very pleasurable, both for us
and for the group. I was told later that on the journey
home, the kids did not stop asking questions! And we even
made the local paper!
The day itself was not that hot, and the number of
visitors was much higher than we had expected, so soon
after the holidays. But apparently a large number of
people used the warm weather to enjoy a (maybe last?)
bicycle trip. Anyway, we had a quite busy day.
Recruits? |
No, these are the kids from the Junior club from
Museum Dorestad, Levefanum. |
Question time! |
We enjoyed a very good lunch! |
Guard on the Limes. |
Like father, like son. Combimed picture of two
generations of volunters! |
So, you still want to join the legions, lad? Of
course, after he had donned armour, it was
grandpa's turn.. |
..grandpa obliged.. |
..but getting rid of the armour afterwards was
easier said than done! |
The tower
during a warm day in late summer..
July 10th:
Another hot Sunday..
I don't
know what's with this season, but so far, every time we
had an event in the open (including the grand
opening as well as Nijmegen), the
temperatures reached 30 degrees! Today it was the same -
impossible to keep watch on the tower, we moved to the
shade of the trees after lunch when my son Jeroen joined
us. There weren't that many visitors anyway, so we even
had time to polish and repair the kit. Speaking about
visitors.. the local ducks (which we dubbed 'Maximus' and
'Galla') were there again, this time joined by a rooster,
which we immediately dubbed 'Gallus'! Jeroen had a very
nice afternoon chasing and feeding them.
Armoured guard. |
We stuck to the shade, mostly, only ever so often
venturing out on the road. |
Jeroen also had his kit.. |
Double the guard! |
The tower in full summer, nice to see but hard to
stay inside. |
Andreas (Chariovalda) on guard duty. |
Jeroen (Hieronimus) chasing Galla
& Gallus. |
June 19th:
Hot Sunday!
Our
first 'regular' guard duty on the tower after the grand
opening, and it was again more than 30 degrees!
Mars? A pagan! |
Despite the heat, we still had some people
driving by... |
Shiny stuff!! |
The new lorica squamata is nearly
finished and we decided to try it on. |
Looking good! |
The new armour clearly fits Chariovalda
too. |
The tower, shimmering in the heat. |
Maximus & Galla. |
Nearly
summer, blistering heat.
June 12th: Just
a Sunday.
A week
before Fectio is due for our first 'regular'
guard duty on the tower after the grand
opening, it was the turn of Legio X Gemina
in the persons of Sander and Arie (almost unrecognisable
with his beard), who had a very quiet day by the looks of
it.
Sander en Arie. |
Marrit & Jeroen posing, in their usual spot. |
The small red car belongs to the Roman guard on
duty.. |
The new sign. |
Soldier Sander. |
A
180-degree panoramic spread facing west, it's nice and
quiet.
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