So what do you do when somone offers to take you down the one of the biggest drains in london? Say 'no way im scared'... Well yes thats the sensible thign to do! 
but once the offer has been made its oh so hard to refuse or at least it was for me So after finding my wellies i met up with Zero to 'take the plunge' 
We parked up at about 9am a few hundered meters away from our entrance, Or atleast thats what i was told. As far as i was concerned we were just in the middle of 'saff london' it all looked very normal, Not much to UE around here, i thought, but i was wrong. After kitting up in boiler suits, gloves, helmets, hi-vis and Zero s makeshift 'tape' waders we started walking through brixton getting some rather strange looks.
Suddenly Zero stops and says something along the lines of 'were here' and wips out a drain key and within 30 sec im standing in a smelly sewer
Zero goes first along the sewer. Its not too nice, smells a bit, dirty fast flowing water and slippy bricks. Tbh im bricking it! one slip and im covered. Zero assures me its not all this bad. 'This is the only way we have found to get in yet' After about 5mins of nearly falling over we reach our destination! the nice clean drain. (Hes right you know theres no shit in the drains)
Climbing out of the fast flowing water is a bit of a relief (not a pun honest ) It was virtualy dry. We made our way through the tunnels for a little while. Time to relax a bit! we went passed a few bits i recognised from the pictures. Gradualy the tunnel dropped down untill we came to a junction with another drain that Zero had not been down yet.. We dicided to take a look so climbed over the control gate thing and headed down the tunnel. It was more modern than the other parts, went on and on for ages (atleast 8000feet judging by the numbers on the wall). We tryed to follow it Zeros map but tbh we didnt know for sure where we were. It was a bit of a dive tbh not much down there so only took a few pic of some junctions.
When we reached the end we headed back taking some pics on the way. Its bloody hard work walking in some of a the smaller pipes and we were pretty shagged by the time we got back to the main drain. Zero said we should go check out the falls "its only 15 min away or so!" he said. Bollocks it was atleast an hour away
We headed down the drain, it dropped away steeply at one point and the sounds from the roads above stopped. You could still hear the tube trains pass tho even right at the bottom! That was fooking weird. Zero found a miniture COTS sink hole which he dicded to get way to close to for my liking! and we stopped to take some pics of a few bits and bobs.
After walking for a while the tunnel started to fill up with silt. Not just dirt, we are talking whole shovels and at one point litraly 1000s of spoons! totaly weird stuff, keys, toy cars, jewlary. Had a great time rummaging through it.
We had been walking for ages now (again!) and eventualy got to the end. zero made a remark about how quiet it was today. Not thinking much of it we sat down for a couple of min and got the cameras out. Just as we started talking photos we hear this loud 'water moving quickly' noise start and a torrent of water came pouring over the falls and flooded where we were standing. To be honest i was fucking bricking it at this point. 100 feet underground and its filling up Zero didnt seme to bothered tho, only bothered about getting some cool pics anyway! . I got a couple of quick pics whic came out surprisingly well and we headed back.
Another long walk later we found our way back up to the higher levels and after a bit of poking around (zero dissapered off down a sewer again! mad man!!:crazy ) we found a new 'way out' Not knowing exacly where we were. We were a bit worried about where we would burst out but we needent have bothered. It was the most comedy exit from anywhere ive ever seen. Zero lifted the hatch and we popped out right in the middle of brixton with loads of people about Strangely tho no one semed to care :crazy Trouble is we were lost! it took a further hour or so of wandering around in our kit using the little maps you get at bus stops to navigate, to find our way back to the cars!
Im not sure im going to be rushing back to do more but it was one of the weirdst/scaryest/interesting explores ive done and cirtanly differant to how you would imagine once you have overcome the 'fear'
All in all pretty top day (9 hours underground :freak ) and Thanks mr Zero!
Heres some pics
Zero taking 'arty' pics
Big valve gate thing
Ladder in the new bit
zero braving the falls (madness)
The falls going mental! It doesnt look that bad but trust me it was
'way out' maybe
Random drain shots
but once the offer has been made its oh so hard to refuse or at least it was for me So after finding my wellies i met up with Zero to 'take the plunge' We parked up at about 9am a few hundered meters away from our entrance, Or atleast thats what i was told. As far as i was concerned we were just in the middle of 'saff london' it all looked very normal, Not much to UE around here, i thought, but i was wrong. After kitting up in boiler suits, gloves, helmets, hi-vis and Zero s makeshift 'tape' waders we started walking through brixton getting some rather strange looks.
Suddenly Zero stops and says something along the lines of 'were here' and wips out a drain key and within 30 sec im standing in a smelly sewer
Zero goes first along the sewer. Its not too nice, smells a bit, dirty fast flowing water and slippy bricks. Tbh im bricking it! one slip and im covered. Zero assures me its not all this bad. 'This is the only way we have found to get in yet' After about 5mins of nearly falling over we reach our destination! the nice clean drain. (Hes right you know theres no shit in the drains)
Climbing out of the fast flowing water is a bit of a relief (not a pun honest
) It was virtualy dry. We made our way through the tunnels for a little while. Time to relax a bit! we went passed a few bits i recognised from the pictures. Gradualy the tunnel dropped down untill we came to a junction with another drain that Zero had not been down yet.. We dicided to take a look so climbed over the control gate thing and headed down the tunnel. It was more modern than the other parts, went on and on for ages (atleast 8000feet judging by the numbers on the wall). We tryed to follow it Zeros map but tbh we didnt know for sure where we were. It was a bit of a dive tbh not much down there so only took a few pic of some junctions.When we reached the end we headed back taking some pics on the way. Its bloody hard work walking in some of a the smaller pipes and we were pretty shagged by the time we got back to the main drain. Zero said we should go check out the falls "its only 15 min away or so!" he said. Bollocks it was atleast an hour away
We headed down the drain, it dropped away steeply at one point and the sounds from the roads above stopped. You could still hear the tube trains pass tho even right at the bottom! That was fooking weird. Zero found a miniture COTS sink hole which he dicded to get way to close to for my liking! and we stopped to take some pics of a few bits and bobs.
After walking for a while the tunnel started to fill up with silt. Not just dirt, we are talking whole shovels and at one point litraly 1000s of spoons! totaly weird stuff, keys, toy cars, jewlary. Had a great time rummaging through it.
We had been walking for ages now (again!) and eventualy got to the end. zero made a remark about how quiet it was today. Not thinking much of it we sat down for a couple of min and got the cameras out. Just as we started talking photos we hear this loud 'water moving quickly' noise start and a torrent of water came pouring over the falls and flooded where we were standing. To be honest i was fucking bricking it at this point. 100 feet underground and its filling up
Zero didnt seme to bothered tho, only bothered about getting some cool pics anyway! . I got a couple of quick pics whic came out surprisingly well and we headed back.Another long walk later we found our way back up to the higher levels and after a bit of poking around (zero dissapered off down a sewer again! mad man!!:crazy ) we found a new 'way out' Not knowing exacly where we were. We were a bit worried about where we would burst out but we needent have bothered. It was the most comedy exit from anywhere ive ever seen. Zero lifted the hatch and we popped out right in the middle of brixton with loads of people about Strangely tho no one semed to care :crazy Trouble is we were lost! it took a further hour or so of wandering around in our kit using the little maps you get at bus stops to navigate, to find our way back to the cars!
Im not sure im going to be rushing back to do more but it was one of the weirdst/scaryest/interesting explores ive done and cirtanly differant to how you would imagine once you have overcome the 'fear'
All in all pretty top day (9 hours underground :freak ) and Thanks mr Zero!
Heres some pics
Zero taking 'arty' pics
Big valve gate thing
Ladder in the new bit
zero braving the falls (madness)
The falls going mental! It doesnt look that bad but trust me it was
'way out' maybe
Random drain shots
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