Archive for the ‘Drains’ Category
Heavy Mettle
Sometimes when you’re in a drain, there’s a point that you stop moving because you hear a heavy rumble. It gets louder and louder and then passes, and you carry on the trudge through the pipe towards whatever lies ahead, with the only sounds present being the echoes of far off, and the splish splash as you kick through the foot or so of standing water that is often sat at the bottom. There’s few reminders of the human world when you’re in the spaces made entirely for human effluent and storm water, but there’s never full detachment from the ‘real’ world.
Devil’s Ditch, Budapest
October 2011
Not a very sexy drain, Teh Ditch. It was probably once ‘really nice‘, as Siologen’s pictures show, but we had been warned it was something of a slippery sludge pit. It was also identified that there is a 10 foot waterfall at some point in the middle of the drain. Concrete lining had occurred relatively recently, but at parts deeper from the outfall the eternal wash of Hungarian poo had exposed the brick on the floor again. Hence, it’s a bit of a mess. We entered from the infall, which Siologen kindly pointed us in the direction of, and slowly made our way downstream.
Lower COTS
When it snows, go in Drains. A few Gentlemen and I decided to participate in COTS in December 2010, having seen a few delightful pics of the system online. This section of Collossus of the South was everything I was expecting it to be, more impressive even than Hastings’ Stinger storm drain, with a deliciously different feature; the plughole that leads down from the Victorian sections.
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Last Bastion
October 2011
Dark, smelly and not high enough to walk in without stooping, the access to Last Bastion is a five foot diameter sewer pipe which eventually diverts to the Northern Low Level sewer. Upon passing the diversion, there is perhaps fifty metres of ankle deep half sludge, half shit, which is amongst the most unpleasant sections of sewer I’ve had the pleasure of navigating. Read the rest of this entry »
DIY
September 2011
Sometimes you just gotta try something new. Taken from information kindly provided by Eotech, all we knew of this drain was where it’s infall was. Rolling down a hill in the dark, we found the manhole easily and with a heave, the cobweb covered hole was uncovered. The barred infall was far too tight to squeeze down, but once inside it was spacious enough to walk without stooping.
Oslo Drains
August 2011
Oslo wasn’t cold in August, but it sure as hell was expensive. Our bus tickets from Rygge Airport to Oslo cost almost as much as our flights, and groceries we’d normally pay £20 for cost us over £40. Tired from a night of running T-Bane, we decided that to sleep, we’d be best off in the park, so we climbed a rocky hill and bedded down on our airbeds having built a fire. Read the rest of this entry »
Rubix
February 2011
It seems like ages now since we went to Rubix. Just a long brick pipe with a little junction at one end. It’s fed by the River Effra, long since buried under the streets of South London and turned into a sewer. Rubix itself is known as the South Western Storm Sewer, essentially there to collect the overflow from the sewer when it rains. Read the rest of this entry »
“Going Fishing”
February 2011
Sporting waders regularly invites an inquisition from the public as to our immediate intentions. What are you doing? Where are you going? Where have you been? What’s down there? The Police have asked us what we’re doing, sometimes putting answers in our mouths. “Going Fishing?”, “Yes Officer!”.
O RLY?
February 2011
Eyeballs
Deep Ochre had been a target of mine for a while, although finding it seemed to consist of just looking for lids in a certain area. In all honesty, I didn’t know where I was meant to be looking or what I was going to find. A few hints had appeared on certain sites and by chance, I identified a lid that I thought would be it.
The Stinking Fleet
January 2011
As ever the routine was followed. Park up, kit up, get down. We entered down concrete steps into an overflow chamber which had a drophole into what I assumed was the Fleet Storm Relief: from this we could climb into the sewer ‘proper’. The water was shin deep and although not bearing an overly heavy flow, was noted.
Overflow chamber Read the rest of this entry »