ROF Brackla (the 8X's), South Wales - July 08
CS, RD (OS) and my brother had been the week before and I'd been badgering him all week to go and he finally succumbed. On this explore was my brother, woof and myself.
We first went to see 8X7, which is a fantastic experience, we followed the tunnel, past some spectacular collapses (deliberate???) right to the end to where the tunnel has been concreted shut, if you're really quiet here, you can hear running water below your feet.
All the way along the tunnels, there are these fantastic stalagmites and stalactites,
Most of the side tunnels have (been) collapsed and the concrete roof has fallen down blocking the entrances, there are two open ones near the beginning of 8X7 but they don't look far off collapsing.
All around the place, there are pieces of the steel supporting hoops which are about 1" thick girders that supported the roof structure, these have been broken (blown) into pieces by some force. The edges are slightly molten.
Everywhere we went, Bone_mad was there, she was exploring every nook and cranny, loving every minute. No puddle was too deep, no wall too high.
We then moved onto 8X6, which had a smaller entrance, we had to get a picture of the fake appendage mentioned in the other threads, CS, look away now or you'll have nightmares!!
Scattered around the place were these fantastic heavy duty lamps.
And the switchwork.
We were very hesitant about going right to the bottom of this tunnel as there were significant collapses of the side walls and of the link tunnels, but as always, a bit of taunting put our balls in the right place and we (very quietly) made our way to the far end. Nothing makes you place your feet carefully as the threat of imminent collapse.
At the end of this tunnel, there is a lot of running water passing below your feet, it is quite loud. We obviously didn't spend long down here, but on the way back, we spotted this set of rollers that would have been along the tunnel for pushing boxes down.
We made our way a bit further up the tunnel and spotted a ladder going up one of the collapsed side tunnel roofs.
I squeezed my way up and on top of the tunnel, either side of the entrance was a ladder that went down between the double skins.
There was enough headroom for me to crouch and walk all the way along the top of the tunnel to the other side which was the right-hand tunnel of 8X6. I saw significant collapses on this side and was not about to venture there.
We made our way out of the tunnel through the gap.
We had a quick peek in 8X5 as I wanted to go see the other bunkers.
We walked up to the north west one (scared the life out of some teenage dopeheads) and had a look around.
Past some guard huts.
Then to the middle (secured) one.
The old alarm system.
The new alarm system.
In all the excitement, I forgot to take a full photo of this one, we walked all the way over the top of it, there is definately no other way in, lol.
It was getting dark by now so we made our way home.
J.
CS, RD (OS) and my brother had been the week before and I'd been badgering him all week to go and he finally succumbed. On this explore was my brother, woof and myself.
We first went to see 8X7, which is a fantastic experience, we followed the tunnel, past some spectacular collapses (deliberate???) right to the end to where the tunnel has been concreted shut, if you're really quiet here, you can hear running water below your feet.
All the way along the tunnels, there are these fantastic stalagmites and stalactites,
Most of the side tunnels have (been) collapsed and the concrete roof has fallen down blocking the entrances, there are two open ones near the beginning of 8X7 but they don't look far off collapsing.
All around the place, there are pieces of the steel supporting hoops which are about 1" thick girders that supported the roof structure, these have been broken (blown) into pieces by some force. The edges are slightly molten.
Everywhere we went, Bone_mad was there, she was exploring every nook and cranny, loving every minute. No puddle was too deep, no wall too high.
We then moved onto 8X6, which had a smaller entrance, we had to get a picture of the fake appendage mentioned in the other threads, CS, look away now or you'll have nightmares!!
Scattered around the place were these fantastic heavy duty lamps.
And the switchwork.
We were very hesitant about going right to the bottom of this tunnel as there were significant collapses of the side walls and of the link tunnels, but as always, a bit of taunting put our balls in the right place and we (very quietly) made our way to the far end. Nothing makes you place your feet carefully as the threat of imminent collapse.
At the end of this tunnel, there is a lot of running water passing below your feet, it is quite loud. We obviously didn't spend long down here, but on the way back, we spotted this set of rollers that would have been along the tunnel for pushing boxes down.
We made our way a bit further up the tunnel and spotted a ladder going up one of the collapsed side tunnel roofs.
I squeezed my way up and on top of the tunnel, either side of the entrance was a ladder that went down between the double skins.
There was enough headroom for me to crouch and walk all the way along the top of the tunnel to the other side which was the right-hand tunnel of 8X6. I saw significant collapses on this side and was not about to venture there.
We made our way out of the tunnel through the gap.
We had a quick peek in 8X5 as I wanted to go see the other bunkers.
We walked up to the north west one (scared the life out of some teenage dopeheads) and had a look around.
Past some guard huts.
Then to the middle (secured) one.
The old alarm system.
The new alarm system.
In all the excitement, I forgot to take a full photo of this one, we walked all the way over the top of it, there is definately no other way in, lol.
It was getting dark by now so we made our way home.
J.
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