# Eddies vortex the descent



## Alias (Feb 13, 2008)

OK the photos are not gonna be good for this but I dont care it was all about the experience.


Our journey begins with the first images of COTS (Colossus of the South) by Sub Urban looking through them everyone was immediately drawn to the image of Eddies Vortex (named after writing on the wall saying this). I personally had to see it for myself; the sheer size of this plug hole dwarfed all others. Fast forward a year and a half and I am turning a corner noise surrounds me water flows beneath me and I am confronted with one of the scariest and most awesome architectural features I have seen in my life. Huge plug hole water rushing over the sides of it and falling 100ft to the bottom where it crashes into Lower COTS. The noise the water splashing everywhere the whole experience overwhelms me and I am hooked on draining. This image of the whole turns peoples stomachs as they see what is basically a hole to certain death with slippery sides and fast flowing water looking to almost suck you into it. 







Every person who sees Eddies Vortex always jokes about how awesome it would be to abseil down into the vortex. Fast forward to February 2008. 

I am not a man for heights so unfortunately I cannot accept any congratulations for the following story as I did not partake but was there to witness.

There are many things I have seen people do that have astounded me; bungee jumping, free climbing, base jumping, to name a few today I will add a new one and raise it to the top of my list of respect.

It all began with a phone call saying Lower COTS Tuesday night trust me it will be good. So I arrive in Brighton waiting for the others to arrive slowly I am joined by 
JD (www.suburban.com), Dsankt (www.sleepycity.org), Zero (www.silentuk.com), Loops (no one has ever seen one of his photos.com) and Little Elvis (www.dereliction.org). The mood is jovial but tense with various inappropriate jokes and laughter as we head for the entrance into Lower COTS. We climb down the 100 ft to Lower COTS and sort our shit out. Walkie-talkies are handed out and much immature fun is had. Over. Me Little Elvis and Loops hang at the western end of the drain as the others head of east to find the base of Eddies Vortex. 

I take some arty photos of the tunnel using pretentious lighting and in my mind I have already photoshopped the hell out of them. Then we begin the walk to meet the others. Along the wall are markers saying how far along the tunnel you have travelled in meters as we reach just over 3000 meters we see a glimmer of light ahead. Out of the darkness an almighty thundering of water can be heard, we walk up some steps off the main Lower COTS tunnel to be confronted with the base of Eddies Vortex, which is equally as scary as the top. We immediately can hear voices above us and spot the ladder behind the base of the vortex. Up I climb first up a ladder and then a spiral staircase that goes around the vortex giving it an almost NASA feel and look as though we are climbing to the top of a rocket. As I climb up a final ladder to where Dsankt, JD and Zero are I walk over and look over the edge, I am stood about 30 foot above Eddies Vortex mouth.






This is possibly one of the scariest sites I have ever seen, and then I look to my left. Climbing over the edge of the barrier is the Ninja known as Dsankt. Fully kitted up and for once looking rather serious he is hanging over Eddies Vortex suspended.

This site brings both a huge smile to my face and sweat to my palms; it is both amazing and scary at the same time. He descends to the level of Eddies Vortex mouth where he sits on the edge checks his kit is all secured properly then does something I think I shall never erase from my memory, he goes into the mouth of eddies vortex. Descending slowly he is constantly being pummelled by freezing cold water, thankfully he has fashioned a waterproof cape to kinda keep him dry. As he descends further the water surrounding him starts to obstruct him from our view slightly as he descends into what can only be described as the bowels of Brighton. It is an amazing site and one that I am privileged to say I witnessed.

Dsankt’s decent






Next over the edge is Zero he is nervous as he is fairly inexperienced but with the expert advice from JD and Stoop he slowly lets go of the railing and heads down with incredible control and concentration. With his trademark silly poses and superman styleeees he makes his way to the bottom.

Zero’s Decents































































Then its JD’s turn over the side he goes, posing for photos as he goes down even helping to light some of them. Controlled and professional is the way I would describe JD’s decent, also damn quick at the end as he started to become engulfed in torrents of water as it all converges at the bottom of the vortex.

JD’s Decent


























Then Zero decided he wanted to go again. As he went over the side I turned to partake in the ancient art of conversation with JD and we are interrupted by screaming, we both rush to see what is wrong, Zero is hanging half way down Eddies Vortex in what seems to be a lot of pain, we shout down but the thundering water muffles our shouts so they are inaudible to Zeros ears. Slowly Zero makes it to the bottom and we all wait to find out what went wrong. As he climbs the last ladder he reveals that the rope had chaffed really badly on his groin and he now had red rope burn marks, nothing serious then.

We then checked the time 4am right time to pack up our shit and leave, the rope was derigged and packed away, cameras went away and everything was secured into our bags. Then up into the real world everyone with smug faces we began the 45 minute walk back to the car which was parked next to the entrance of Lower COTS then back home by train (or car if you are JD). 

As I sit here typing this trying to hold my eye lids open I keep thinking I must have imagined what I witnessed tonight but then I look at the pictures and I realise what the guys did today was set a whole new bar, one that I feel with not be touched by anyone for a long time. My utmost respect to JD, Dsankt and Zero for doing it, it was incredibly controlled and professional with every bit of equipment plus more checked and checked again. I shall leave you with some more random pictures from this amazing night:


Alias
www.guerillaphotography.co.uk



ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT PROPERTY OF WWW.GUERILLAPHOTGORAPHY.CO.UK AND ITS OWNER UNDER NO CERCUMSTANCES CAN THESE IMAGES BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT PRIOR CONCENT FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHER DOING SO WILL RESULT IN LEGAL ACTION BEING TAKEN AGAINST THE OFFENDING


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## snappel (Feb 13, 2008)

*Re: eddies vortex the descent*

I bet Zero shat himself, didn't he?

Good effort either way.


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## Jondoe_264 (Feb 13, 2008)

*Re: eddies vortex the descent*



snappel said:


> I bet Zero shat himself, didn't he?
> 
> Good effort either way.



LOL! He was pretty collected on his first time down, once he had confidence in Dsankt's kit, that he was using, he was coool. The second time though, man, I was half expecting to look over the side and see him in some trouble. It was one of those earpiercing shrill shrieks of pain that immediately makes you think the worst, roped chaffed inner thighs sounds bad, but compared to the thoughts that immediately went through my head it's no so bad . . 

Damn fine write up there Sir! Your pics of Zero getting his stuff together and getting over the side are great! And the very first pic, standing on the walkway looking down into the Vortex, that's frikkin awesome! Very cool night, happy to have been along!  

Where are the other random pics from the evening? I no see any?

p.s. you missed the dash (-) in my link www.sub-urban.com 

JD


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## snappel (Feb 13, 2008)

*Re: eddies vortex the descent*

Looks good either way. And besides, what better way for him to have a first decent abseil than this?


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## Jondoe_264 (Feb 13, 2008)

*Re: eddies vortex the descent*



snappel said:


> Looks good either way. And besides, what better way for him to have a first decent abseil than this?



Yeah, was good value, I liked it a lot!


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## Reaperman (Feb 13, 2008)

*Re: eddies vortex the descent*

Looks like you all had a great trip, Looks like a fun place for some Absailinig.


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## Zero (Feb 13, 2008)

*Taking The Plunge - Feb 08*

something went wrong oh well such a big shame that


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## King Al (Feb 13, 2008)

*Re: eddies vortex the descent*

Bloody great you guys reports realy do get better and better, hats off thumbs up I am on the edge of my seat after that and cannot wait for the next addventure


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## Reaperman (Feb 13, 2008)

Quick Moderation note, I've merged the threads as we only really need one per Trip as outlined in the Guidelines: http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?p=33769#post33769


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## Zero (Feb 13, 2008)

*Re: eddies vortex the descent*



snappel said:


> I bet Zero shat himself, didn't he?
> 
> Good effort either way.



Your damn right, that was god damned scary as hell and id never bloody abseiled before.


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## Foxylady (Feb 13, 2008)

Absolute respect to you guys. My palms were sweating just reading that! 
Great write-ups and pics too.


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## smileysal (Feb 13, 2008)

WOW, hats off to you guys, that was amazing. Really enjoyed reading the reports and love seeing the pics. You guys are nuts on one hand, but absolutely awesome on the other. 

Can't believe you abseiled down what looks like the plug hole of doom lol. Awseome.

Cheers guys,

 Sal


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## sheep2405 (Feb 13, 2008)

Wow guys reminds me so much of Oz drains. What the egress like to get out do you have to prusick out of the Vortex or is there a walking way?


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## Jondoe_264 (Feb 13, 2008)

sheep2405 said:


> Wow guys reminds me so much of Oz drains. What the egress like to get out do you have to prusick out of the Vortex or is there a walking way?



Thankfully there's a series of stairs, walkways and ladders wrapping around the outside of the plughole, would have been pretty crappy to have to have to prusik outta there, especially with the _a-bit-too-short_ safety cord on my hand ascender (note to self, get me cord)


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## sheep2405 (Feb 13, 2008)

Thats cool, then Think I will have to put this on on my list to do, I hate prusicking out of places, I get so bloody tired at the end of it, I love going down as the saying goes but hate going back up.....And also cant stand using wire ladders always seem to bruise something genrally my knuckles


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## grimreaper (Feb 13, 2008)

i may sound a bit thick but i have a few questions? 

1-what are these vortex things used for?(i assume some kind of overflow control)

2-where does the water go to when it hits the bottom?

3-how deep is it?

4- do all reservoirs have them?

5- and finaly how fukkin crazy are you guys?

sorry for questions but there not much info on wikipedia
nice job guys


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## King Al (Feb 13, 2008)

grimreaper said:


> i may sound a bit think but i have a few questions?



you do now


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## snappel (Feb 14, 2008)

grimreaper said:


> i may sound a bit thick but i have a few questions?


It's a storm overflow tank - if the combined(?) sewer further up the system overflows (i.e. in floods), rather than backing up into the streets it crosses a weir and flows into the storm drain. Once it would've then swept out into the sea, but a few years back a long storm tank was built to fill up, which can then be pumped out later. This shaft is one of the routes water/sewerage can take down into the tank.

So it's nothing to do with reservoirs really, other than the fact that it is one, in a way...


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## Rotax (Feb 14, 2008)

Stunning absolutly stunning!!

Top report, Rotax......


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## Elvis killer (Feb 15, 2008)

Thats awesome!!


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## mechanised (Feb 15, 2008)

This is stunning. It's a whole other world, and it's a real privilege to be able to see this kind of thing (and all the other subterranean reports I've been working through recently)


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## borntobemild (Feb 16, 2008)

Amazing stuff - looks like a movie set!


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## chelle (Feb 16, 2008)

Can I be so bold as to ask where this awsome place is located?If you dont wanna give a precise one..a rough guide will do as I cant find any info on it...Stu


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## Jondoe_264 (Feb 16, 2008)

chelle said:


> Can I be so bold as to ask where this awsome place is located?If you dont wanna give a precise one..a rough guide will do as I cant find any info on it...Stu



Brighthelmstone:

www.sub-urban.com/cots


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## carew (Feb 17, 2008)

hats off to you guys.

amazing images.

got more bottle than me.


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## Indefatigable (Feb 20, 2008)

Fantastic report! I saw the pics over on 28DL first, was just amazed. Kudos for going into the hole though, I doubt I could have done that!


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## johno23 (Feb 26, 2008)

You guys are insanebut you deserve a medal for bravery,skill and excellent pictures.

top stuff,well done.


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## DJhooker (Feb 26, 2008)

When ropes are involved then thats a mission!


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## za-hateshiganai (Mar 12, 2008)

you guys have some some serios nerves! well done !!!

That thing looks like the mouth to Hell ! shame its a shear drop and not a shear drop that genly levals off into a windey pipe would make quite a good slide!!!!


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## DPW2008 (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow - looks like a big drop - congratulations - I don't know how I would feel doing that!


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## DarkTransparent (Mar 13, 2008)

Adrenaline is going just looking at the pics, congrats on the descent guys.


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## prinzofdark (Mar 16, 2008)

Awsome place!!!

wish we had drains like that where I live.


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## shutler7 (Jan 3, 2009)

this must have ben an amazing climb. was it just one rope, no safety lines? if u don't mind me asking where is this place, it looks amazing.

and does anyone have any idea of ant sites where you can find maps on places like this. ive been searching for the past hous and cant find anything


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## DogRecon (Jan 3, 2009)

I bow down before thee.
We are not worthy


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## coopsleeds (Jan 3, 2009)

awesome guys well done


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## Newage (Jan 4, 2009)

Guys
Wow my palms are sweating just looking through the pictures, I'v done cold war bunkers with ladders but this is major hardcore, BIG respect.

Newage


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## LutEx (Jan 5, 2009)

That looks great fun 

Good on yas!


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## undeterredham (Apr 10, 2009)

That was amazing just reading it. 
Much respect to you guy's for goin _near_ that, never mind into it. 

Again, well done.


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