After three weeks in Cologne with nary a free second to take a look around, I was getting itchy, so my capable associates from the All-Belgium Underground Lawn Bowling Society and I decided on a bit of R&R under the countryside to escape the blinding sun of a Northern European November.
The title, of course, refers to the old joke about "why are employees like mushrooms?" and this place, an abandoned mushroom farm inside an isolated part of a formerly large quarry, cut off after a huge collapse in the '60s that killed a great many miners, is actually a good sight more hospitable than some of the offices I've had the pleasure of working in.
This was plan B, after we showed up at the entrance of a supposedly magnificent, breath-taking, jaw-dropping set of caves - which have long been turned into a museum and bat sanctuary, complete with super complicated combo lock, heavy grilles, and motion sensor alarms. ^
^ ^
^ Bats are awesome, but seriously, fuck bats, I want cave.
40 meters abseiling, unpack, realize I'd forgotten my tripod head in the car, frog climb back up, realize the damn thing's not in the car, abseil back down, and hey, at least I'm not in as bad shape as I thought I was. Protip: always carry electrical tape, it solves all technical problems. And if nothing else, you can tie up security guards with it.
Not that there were any (just two perplexed farmers who saw us emerge from a concrete chimney in the middle of their muddy field), but some spiffy tunnel and pre-WW1 graffiti. Enjoy.
Most of the infrastructure was collapsed or demolished. Shoddy build quality.
Jean-Luc <3 Marie-Claude, 1952
Shady characters
<- That way
Professionals grade lighting
Structural support
Belgian mushroom farming ministry, information technology divison
We found the WMDs
Ohai thar
The title, of course, refers to the old joke about "why are employees like mushrooms?" and this place, an abandoned mushroom farm inside an isolated part of a formerly large quarry, cut off after a huge collapse in the '60s that killed a great many miners, is actually a good sight more hospitable than some of the offices I've had the pleasure of working in.
This was plan B, after we showed up at the entrance of a supposedly magnificent, breath-taking, jaw-dropping set of caves - which have long been turned into a museum and bat sanctuary, complete with super complicated combo lock, heavy grilles, and motion sensor alarms. ^
^ ^^ Bats are awesome, but seriously, fuck bats, I want cave.40 meters abseiling, unpack, realize I'd forgotten my tripod head in the car, frog climb back up, realize the damn thing's not in the car, abseil back down, and hey, at least I'm not in as bad shape as I thought I was. Protip: always carry electrical tape, it solves all technical problems. And if nothing else, you can tie up security guards with it.
Not that there were any (just two perplexed farmers who saw us emerge from a concrete chimney in the middle of their muddy field), but some spiffy tunnel and pre-WW1 graffiti. Enjoy.
Most of the infrastructure was collapsed or demolished. Shoddy build quality.
Jean-Luc <3 Marie-Claude, 1952
Shady characters
<- That way
Professionals grade lighting
Structural support
Belgian mushroom farming ministry, information technology divison
We found the WMDs
Ohai thar
More, as usual, at kosmograd dot net.
