# Most golden nuggets you ever did see - London



## dsankt (Feb 6, 2008)

Present: Steve Duncan, Loops, Zero, dsankt

The recent drownings in Fortress got you worried about flooding? You should be. While drowning in water is bad enough, consider for a moment the peril of us London geezers. All the sewers and storm reliefs either flow into or out of the trunk line sewers which collect the copious flow and transport it east for treatment. Further, none of the drains have open outfalls. They all end with giant floodgates, there's no squeezing through the bars here. The top Western branch of the River Westbourne AKA Ranelagh Storm Relief Sewer provides overflow capacity for the Middle Level Sewer. In 30 seconds our relatively dry section of storm relief rose from a trickle to a torrent. Of shit. Awesome.

Drowning in sewage is high on the official Horrible Ways to Die list right next to acid enemas and chainsaw deepthroats. Worse that drowning would be tumbling along with the flow, battering your bones against the bricks, clutching at the walls tearing your fingernails off. Your head lamp is bobbing near you, just beyond reach getting further and further away. You're alone in the darkness, gulping sewage, sinking into darkness. Neither option appealed, cue evasive action.

We shot up a ladder and staged in preparation below a lid nobody had popped before. The lid's lightweight construction indicated a sidewalk/footpath/cycle-lane, hopefully in a relatively quiet part of town. Three affirmatives below me, a grunt and a heave then street light and traffic noise poured into the shaft. Seems the manhole is opposite a tube/bus station. A trifle busier than I'd like, but better than the alternative.

*Tyburner*






So time to call it a night, right? You haven't been reading sleepycity long enough my good fellow, we don't play that weak shit here. Instead we sauntered downstream and flipped a lid into the same tunnel. The rapid knee-deep flow carried long slithering eels of toilet paper downstream towards the Thames and the Low Level Sewer. Everyone gingerly stepped down into the flow and skated downstream to another overflow - The Egg. The Egg runs West from the River Tyburn, across the River Westbourne and then south into the Thames beside the Westbourne outfall. We dropped from the Westbourne into The Egg and danced around the rats to the Tyburn collecting credit cards (6 this time). Some lad purloined the wallet of an old school baller and deposited the spurious plastic into the drain. If you catch me kicking back in VIP with waders and DP, you know why.

*Majestic Curve*




_Steve Duncan of undercity.org. Underground rivers are his favourite thing. Go son!_

The Tyburn is special for passing under some well known tourist spots on route to the Thames. From the throne above comes particularly golden hued nuggets and believe me their shit stinks to. We discussed the fate of a few ams who chose to make their exit nearby. They and their drainer resolve got snapped. Listen young players, discretion is of equal import to boldness. There are times for stealth, speed and cunning, and there are times for that confident 'we own this mufucker' swagger. In a word: finesse.

We were distracted from these masturbation like contemplations by a larger problem. Something in the order of 300kg. Enter the 'smilin hymen' - an 8ft diameter, one inch thick steel flap hinged at the ceiling. Steve and I heaved the fucker open enough to slot in a 3D maglite and allow passage through the gap. At this point the tunnel began to open up considerably into a large semicircle of red and yellow brick. It's big, smelly and once you reach the channeled section, quite dry and easy to traverse. Another good night under London, remember to play safe kiddies.

*Puppet Master*




_I was given the job of staging and lighting this scene. The channel directs the flow into the Low Level Sewer and the main tunnel continues into a concrete tunnel which overflows into the Thames. Dance my puppets dance._


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## Wishmaster (Feb 6, 2008)

Absolutely awesome write up mate, reading that and seeing the pics, was almost like being there myself. 

Amazing stuff


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## Foxylady (Feb 6, 2008)

Excellent! 
Brill pics as ever. Particularly like the last one.

Cheers


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## King Al (Feb 6, 2008)

Super pics Guys love the "Puppet Master" shot


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## smileysal (Feb 6, 2008)

Brilliant pics and report as always. That place looks amazing, love the brickwork. you guys are nuts lol, but i love seeing where you've been, allthe sewers and drains, they look brilliant. 

Cheers again guys,

 Sal


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## Wishmaster (Feb 6, 2008)

Do you guys where breathing gear in this places? I mean dont sewers contain many harmful gases etc?


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## snappel (Feb 6, 2008)

Great write-up as usual. Although...



dsankt said:


> You're alone in the darkness, gulping sewerage, sinking into darkness.


Gulping sewerage?


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## UrbanX (Feb 6, 2008)

Nice write up, and great pics! Rather you than me though!


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## dsankt (Feb 6, 2008)

Wishmaster said:


> Do you guys where breathing gear in this places? I mean dont sewers contain many harmful gases etc?



I don't usually wear a mask. Loops carries a gas detector, so does Steve D. I've never seen either go off and never heard of any drain explorers having troubles. The authorities like to roll out the 'dangerous gas' line at every opportunity. 

Maybe in 20 years there will be a spike in asbestosis and ailments thought vanished because of all us explorers. I don't get sick very often, I regularly avoid illness that my gf gets (and she eats way more veges than me) so I'm chalking it up to a drain bolstered immune system. Any doctors on here want to chime in?




snappel said:


> Great write-up as usual. Although...
> 
> Gulping sewerage?



Glad you caught that, I've skimmed over it every reading. Want to take on the job of full time editor?


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## snappel (Feb 6, 2008)

Hell no! Hardly get time to update my own site at the moment!


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## Jondoe_264 (Feb 6, 2008)

Awesome! You gotta love the Tyburn, amazingly cool and interesting part of London's _sewerage_ network  Whilst we're being pernickety . .



dsankt said:


> The Egg runs East from the River Tyburn



Doesn't The Egg runs West from the Tyburn? 

Kudos for heaving open that monsterous flappage. 

On the bad air front, I've only ever once had the gas monitor go off whilst in a sewer. It was on an occassion when we spent a long time in one specific spot and had inadvertently churned up a real thick bottom layer of deposited festering _organic_ matter, even then though the monitor was set to a very low detection level to allow response time.

JD


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## Wishmaster (Feb 6, 2008)

dsankt said:


> I don't usually wear a mask. Loops carries a gas detector, so does Steve D. I've never seen either go off and never heard of any drain explorers having troubles. The authorities like to roll out the 'dangerous gas' line at every opportunity.
> 
> Maybe in 20 years there will be a spike in asbestosis and ailments thought vanished because of all us explorers. I don't get sick very often, I regularly avoid illness that my gf gets (and she eats way more veges than me) so I'm chalking it up to a drain bolstered immune system. Any doctors on here want to chime in?



Always thought there was a bigger risk then that mate.



jondoe_264 said:


> On the bad air front, I've only ever once had the gas monitor go off whilst in a sewer. It was on an occassion when we spent a long time in one specific spot and had inadvertently churned up a real thick bottom layer of deposited festering organic matter, even then though the monitor was set to a very low detection level to allow response time.



Only once? even after stiring up something that bad, the monitor only just picked up gasses?

So its just hypered up myths then? Good way to keep people from wondering down such places I would say, the thought of passing out dead in a sewer is enough to keep most people at bay i reckon.

Only thing though, Ill bet the steaming stinks can be hard to ignore?


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## dsankt (Feb 6, 2008)

West, you're right. Man I'm downright retarded today.


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## Jondoe_264 (Feb 6, 2008)

Wishmaster said:


> Always thought there was a bigger risk then that mate.
> 
> Only once? even after stiring up something that bad, the monitor only just picked up gasses?
> 
> ...



It's not a myth, it happens of course, but I wouldn't imagine with any great amount of frequency in the types of locations we explore. If you consider that many of the places we explore are of reasonably large dimensions, _confined_ yes, but most often ventilated to some degree, with fast enough flowing water most of the time to prevent sedimentation. In these larger sewers the risk is smaller for these reasons than it would be in much smaller tunnels where all of the previously mentioned attributes may not apply. There's always a risk.

The smells aren't what you'd imagine, as I'm sure other people would echo. Last time out, a side pipe gushed forth a steaming torrent of grey water that immediately filled the pipe we were in with the aroma of head lice shampoo! Lovely! LOL!

JD


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## King Al (Feb 6, 2008)

Wishmaster said:


> So its just hypered up myths then?



Realistically it is hard for large pockets of gas to actually build up to dangerous amounts there needs to be a poorly ventilated space, and if you think about it a standard sort of drain is basically a big vent with a very large area (or be it long) for any gas to diffuse in to!

But i am of course not saying that there is no danger, Because if you found one of these pockets and it was full of any dangerous gas then that may well be that


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## King Al (Feb 6, 2008)

beat me to there


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## Wishmaster (Feb 6, 2008)

Jondoe_264 said:


> It's not a myth, it happens of course, but I wouldn't imagine with any great amount of frequency in the types of locations we explore. If you consider that many of the places we explore are of reasonably large dimensions, _confined_ yes, but most often ventilated to some degree, with fast enough flowing water most of the time to prevent sedimentation. In these larger sewers the risk is smaller for these reasons than it would be in much smaller tunnels where all of the previously mentioned attributes may not apply. There's always a risk.
> 
> The smells aren't what you'd imagine, as I'm sure other people would echo. Last time out, a side pipe gushed forth a steaming torrent of grey water that immediately filled the pipe we were in with the aroma of head lice shampoo! Lovely! LOL!



Seems very logical, I would never think that there is no danger, of course there is like you say, but no where near what I had expected.

Although I would expect the smells to be unbarable, never the less, your right though, I probably would be suprised. Imagination can exagerate the truth in many cases 



Jondoe_264 said:


> Realistically it is hard for large pockets of gas to actualy build up to dangerous amounts there needs to be a poorly ventilated space, and if you think about it a standard sort of drain is basicly a big vent!
> 
> But i am of course not saying that there is no danger, Because if you found one of these pockets and it was full of any dengerous gas then that may well be that



Thinking logically, yeah, there would need to be very poor/no ventilation for the gases to build up to deadly levels, and as said, with fast flowing water moving the air, I guess build ups would be minimal..

Thanks for the info guys, I have never done a proper drain yet, mainly due to thoughts of outragous smells, deadly gases and not knowing how the hell you guys find such places


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## Jondoe_264 (Feb 6, 2008)

Jondoe_264 said:


> Realistically it is hard for large pockets of gas to actualy build up to dangerous amounts there needs to be a poorly ventilated space, and if you think about it a standard sort of drain is basicly a big vent!
> 
> But i am of course not saying that there is no danger, Because if you found one of these pockets and it was full of any dengerous gas then that may well be that



I don't remember saying that?  LOL!


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## sheep2405 (Feb 6, 2008)

Wow, all the times I went in Fortress I never thought of it possible to drown in there, even with the tidal surge at the end, How did people die? Have you a link to the story?

S


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## Wishmaster (Feb 6, 2008)

Jondoe_264 said:


> I don't remember saying that?  LOL!



whops forget to edit the double quote lol, sorry JD


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## dsankt (Feb 7, 2008)

sheep2405 said:


> Wow, all the times I went in Fortress I never thought of it possible to drown in there, even with the tidal surge at the end, How did people die? Have you a link to the story?
> 
> S



3 graffers, first time in fortress painting and drinking downstream of the cathedral. They didn't check the weather, it rained lots and they got washed downstream. 2 of them died, the 3rd managed to squeeze through the bars on the outfall and was rescued from the ocean.

Here's a link dump, including some article scans. The CaveClan name quickly became involved and the story spread beyond the initail deaths. Some of the articles below talk about the caveclan, <predator> and of course the drain where it happened Fortress. A lot of photos were used straight from the web without permission, as is typical for sensationalised news stories about exploring.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/two-drown-after-storm/2008/01/20/1200764078015.html
http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/2008/01/20/1200764082522.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/above-the-call-of-duty/2008/01/21/1200764128865.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/drain-trio-amateurs/2008/01/21/1200764136972.html 
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/01/21/Two_people_dead_inside_Sydney_drain
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23087129-5001021,00.html
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23086214-5001031,00.html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/inside-the-fortress/2008/01/21/1200764217250.html
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23091543-662,00.html 

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/siologen/02/telegraph_front_pagesm.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/siologen/02/telegraph2sm.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/siologen/02/telegraph4sm.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/siologen/02/herald_front_pagesm.jpg

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...affiti-business/2008/01/22/1200764264483.html
http://www.livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/01/24/EXCLUSIVE_Underground_subculture_surfaces


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## sheep2405 (Feb 7, 2008)

Cheers dsankt, I seen a lot of water in there espcially coming down the bong pipe but bloody hell, going in after rain and not checking. 

Cant believe the paper said they were swimming in there, that is very funny.

hope all this shit didnt bring Pred's memory into disrepute. He was a very nice bloke, who came to a tragic end.


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## Zero (Feb 8, 2008)

Nice writeup matey boy!. Missed a small chunk of info out though


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