31/10/2008 - St. Lawrence railway tunnel

Again, this post begins with the usual apologies for lateness. Visited this a while back on the same day as Culver Down gun battery.

The 600ft-long St. Lawrence railway tunnel opened in 1896 and served the railway running between the stations of Whitwell and St. Lawrence. It finally closed in 1952 and was used for mushroom farming of all things until recently. It now lies abandoned.

Still lots of mushroom farming-related material down there such as sheets, some sand on the floor and a huge farm. The rails have been gone for a long time now, but it's still a fantastic explore.

Entrance was via the St. Lawrence portal - Whitwell's blocked.

As always, click on the thumbnails for larger photos, but they're a bit smaller than usual this time. Still a decent size though.

OK, bad photo, but considering the original unedited version was this...

Photos taken on a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P52 and then edited with Gimp.

31/10/2008 - Culver Down gun battery

Yeah, I'm still catching up on my backlog of unarchived explores. Here's one from a few months ago during a one-day visit to the Isle Of Wight.

Gun batteries were built all over the Island as coastal defence systems in the war. 2 of the original 19 were demolished after WW2, but those that still remain are sites of great interest. Most are now owned by the National Trust or a similar heritage group, and the more interesting ones are owned by independent companies (The Needles Battery being a great example of over-commercialised crap).

This particular site was a National Trust property, but let's be honest, they're too busy looking after their manor houses to really care about the state of it. As such, there's plenty of graffiti and vandalism evident at the site, but it's still in fairly decent condition considering its public status and age. All gun batteries were built with underground sections and tunnels for firing, sleeping and basically living in during the gunsmans' long shifts. Although on my visit access to the main complex of tunnels was securely welded shut (an annoyance), I did manage to access a separate underground room. This was the "shelter," which is annoyingly a different section to where the main complex is and there's no access from one to the other. Nonetheless, it was good to find some underground access (after an awful lot of searching admittedly, it wasn't looking good to start off with).

As always, click thumbnails for original full-sized image.

Photos taken on a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P52 and then edited with Gimp.

31/08/2008 - Madeira set #3: LONG levada tunnel

Part three of a three part set from a trip to Madeira.

It's all about the levada tunnels in Madeira. Madeira set #2 showed us the thrill of traversing with extreme height - Madeira set #3 shows us the real tunnels. This tunnel was roughly (and I hate to resort to using football pitches as measurements) the length of three football pitches. A nice little explore. Again, pitch black, and with one torch between four of us it was a little tricky navigating to say the least. As we were following the levada (it always comes back to the levada...), a foot in the wrong place would have meant wet feet.

Photos are scarce, but let's be honest, what exactly is there to take photos of in a tunnel which is basically the same ten feet repeated a few hundred times? You know the drill: click on the thumbnails for the original image.

Entrance portal.




The ever-present levada.




Exit portal.

Pictures taken on a Canon Digital Ixus 70, some edited using Gimp.

30/08/2008 - Madeira set #2: High levada tunnels

Part two of a three part set from a trip to Madeira.

The second site of interest on the picturesque island of Madeira came in the form of a tunnel through the cliff face. Not that interesting? Try doing it a good 500 feet up in the air with a just a pathetic excuse for a railing to save your fall. That's what makes it fun.

The sheer height of this water system not only makes it fun, but also pretty risky. I mentioned in the ridiculously dramatic last paragraph that the only thing preventing you fall was a poorly-constructed railing - and really, it's pathetic. Maybe if you toppled sideways on a pivot it would help you out, but one false move with you feet and you're going down. Literally.

The following photos hopefully give a nice enough impression of what it's like to be up there. If not, well... I don't care. For pure photography value, I'm pleased with how they turned out. As always, a click on the thumbnails will produce the full-size shot.

Pictures taken on a Canon Digital Ixus 70 and edited using Gimp.

29/08/2008 - Madeira set #1: Huts and tunnel

Part one of a three part set from a trip to Madeira.

Madeira is pretty much an urban explorer's paradise. Around every corner there are abandoned houses, some of them twice the size of an average house over here. Vandals are almost non-existent, and every site is in near immaculate condition.

It was on a hill walk when we came across these huts. They would have been used to house workers in the mine, which is about two miles down the hill from here. The mine itself was actually accessable, but as my luck would have it I didn't bring a torch with me and the camera batterys died. Exploring an unknown mine with a waterfall inside without a torch? Bad idea.

What makes these huts special is not the construction itself... but the scenery. Beautiful views in every direction. Working in a mine, having a nice stroll down the hill with the views every day, can you think of a better job? Just along from these huts was a tunnel dug into the cliff, and as the old Bear Hunt would say, "we can't go round it... we'll have to go through it!" Enjoy the photos.

A random cow I christened "Mr. Moo." The artistic cow shot will be appearing on every Madeira postcard from now onwards!

This holiday cottage boasts stunning views, a kitchenette...

...and an en-suite bathroom.

Up on the roof.

View from the roof.

Onto the tunnel. As I've mentioned before, I didn't think to bring a torch, which was the reason I couldn't explore the mine. I'm really, really, annoyed about that. Anyway, going through the tunnel in pitch black was fun if a little awkward, so we adopted the "take photo with flash and look at it" method to see what was in front of us. With a levada (stream cut into the rock) running along one side, putting your foot down in the wrong place could not only have been dangerous, but wet as well.

Pictures taken on a better camera than usual.

16/08/2008 AND 20/08/2008 - Bradfield ROC Post

After some extensive research, I discovered that of all ROC posts local to me, Bradfield had the best condition one to offer. It's no wonder that it's in good condition - vandals would be deterred by the vast expanse of brambles you have to crawl through to reach it.

My first visit was the main information gathering visit. Spoke to the owner of a house nearby who informed me that the entire stretch of land, including that which the ROC post is on, was owned by the Englefield Estate. Figuring that they were probably too busy mowing the private gardens or entertaining posh guests, I made the trek to the centre of the field to the big tell-tale clump of brambles situated there. Fought my way through the brambles, coming up for air at the centre of this bush where the post entrance was located. It was poorly secured, but then again, what's the point of securing a post that no one with half a brain would visit (I, obviously, don't have half a brain)? Made my way down the ladder, but being my first ROC post explore had completely underestimated how dark it would be, and promptly drove home to return at a later date.

On that certain later date, had a much better prepared and more productive snoop around the post. It's in great condition, with most original items still there (unfortunately, no radio left, and an empty box labelled "syren" can't mean much good). They were all a bit misaligned, as although no one had visited with the intent to vandalise, numerous visits from various parties had made the whole place a bit askew. Took some OK-ish photos, but the whole experience for me was great.

As always, click on the photos for original full size.

Would you go down?

Box was empty - either siren was removed at the decommissioning of the post or some idiot's nicked it.

Again, pictures taken on a (rubbishy) Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P52.

15/08/2008 - University Of Reading ice cave

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable explores I've been on: an ice cave hidden deep inside a bush on the University Of Reading campus. An ice cave was often used for storing food items such as meat, sandwiched between layers of ice to keep them fresh. They are typical of large manor houses from the ancient times before freezers (hard to imagine, I know). The University campus was in fact the grounds of a large house before its conversion to education. And what remains of this home? Well, one building, and... this ice cave.

I actually remembered this one from when I was a child. There was a large fallen tree on the campus which I used to play on, scramble over and do things that children do on. I remember on more than one occasion venturing just round the corner from the tree, to find the ice cave of all things. It was securely locked up back then, being in such a public location. I never showed any interest in it back then either: I was six years old, had a tree to play on and couldn't get through the gate anyway.

Only when I first became interested in UE I remembered this old place. Searching for it on the University grounds was a nightmare - 321 acres of lakes, woods and overgrown bushes. The fallen tree has been removed, which gave me no starting point either. However, using the little knowledge I had from when I was younger, I eventually located it. Obviously I'm not posting where it is on here, as the University have evidently been trying to hide it by letting a flipping huge bush grow over it. It's in near perfect condition and it should stay that way really.

Enjoy the pictures - click on them to view the original full size.

This drain would have been so the ice which melts would have been able to go somewhere besides the cave, eliminating flooding.

Pictures taken on a (rubbishy) Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P52 then edited using Gimp.