Short Drain Exploration

[DIzzIE]

http://www.dizzy.ws/sueher/
Just a few shots of a drain...

[C.R. Ripshit]

How big is that drain and why did you take so many pics of it? Curious is all.

[DIzzIE]

The drain is about 4 feet (a little over one metre) in diameter. If anyone thinks that's big, have a gander at http://www.urbex.org/misc/geehi2.jpg

As for length, the drain followed a Z formation so distance was hard to gauge, but it was probably a little over the length of an American football field so ~120 yards (~110 metres).

An abundance of pictures was taken because I would rather have too many than not enough.

[duiker]

There's a drain like that (the first one) 'cept much much older looking near here- it leads up from the river at a 45 degree angle or something real steep and levels out after about a hundred metres and heads across town. It's pitch black inside and muggy too.
I followed a couple of the guys up there when they started an expedition to find the end whilst swimming in the river- legend says that it leads to the local norco and they regularly flood the tunnels.. some people say that it's just a stormwater drain. But either way, it's got a continuous, steady trickle of water flowing through it [we're always in drought]. Anyhow, people have drowned in there.

The water flow increased after almost a k, I should think, inwards so we abandoned our plan of finding the end and scrambled back through the pitch blackness, eagerly feeling for the incline that signalled the last of the tunnel.

I get slightly claustrophobic so you could say that with the thought of drowning in a small pitch black tunnel, I was more scared then than I have ever been in my life.

But I'd do it again.

[DIzzIE]

For more info on draining in Australia, duiker, be sure to check out the Cave Clan (http://www.caveclan.org) :)

[duiker]

Thanks mate.

[KaRMa]

Me and some friends are going to go check out an old abandoned hospital... It's kinda part of the Urb ex scene so I'll probably put some pics up too. We've already gone to an old mental hospital. Is drain dunking near as fun as poking around old buildings?

[DIzzIE]

While abandoned structures and drains both contain elements of unpredictability, when going into buildings you usually have a clear idea of at least the length of the perimeter. With drains, you may find yourself in one that stretches on for miles in a vast underground labyrinth, or comes to a sudden stop at the high-end of a waterfall. As such, I would say that draining is a tad more exciting than the other facets of urban exploration. Have a read through the Minneapolis drain expedition logs: http://www.aberrant.org/~sand/drain/ (Expedition 51 is the most riveting :) )

[DIzzIE]

A few shots of an extended culvert...
http://www.dizzy.ws/culvert/

[Armalite]

We got a culvert like that abou a 1/4 mile from my mother's house. Not quite as long, but square and full of graffiti. EVERYBODY smoked bud in it back in the day. It even has a name with the locals. The "No-Paranoid Spot."

[kbk]

Those are pretty cool pics, it'd be sweet if we had something like that around here.

[DIzzIE]

A few more recent shots: http://www.dizzy.ws/trax/

[DIzzIE]

Some snaps of a rather short culvert: www.dizzy.ws/shorties (http://www.dizzy.ws/shorties)

[DIzzIE]

http://www.dizzy.ws/drainnmo/

Some shots of a fairly large series of drains (~9' diameter), and then a brief overview of a dairy plant...:smile:

[DIzzIE]

A few more updates: www.dizzy.ws/sc (http://www.dizzy.ws/sc) , www.dizzy.ws/bw (http://www.dizzy.ws/bw) , www.dizzy.ws/gvmini (http://www.dizzy.ws/gvmini)

[DIzzIE]

Another drain: http://www.dizzy.ws/blap/ :wiggle:

[torcher]

http://www.infiltration.org/drains-first8.html

found this while i was stumbling around the internet

[Esophagus]

This looks like a lot of fun, I'd love to try and find a drain and try, but they don't seem to exist around here.

[PirateJoe]

This thread rules. I've been draining a couple times where I live, but the going wasn't easy. Hunched over in a 4 foot pipe kills the knees. I wish there were drains around here big enough to stand upright in.

[DIzzIE]

I'm working on a FAQ-like text on draining, so if anyone has any questions they'd like answered please post them (though there's no guarantee that I'll actually know how to answer them, but worth a try I suppose :P)...