Cobra, Link Rover and myself set off at 7pm from Lincoln on Friday evening for what we hoped would be a trilogy of epic explores in the Rochester area of Kent.
Three hours later we arrived at the dockside and the reality of what we were about to attempt hit home.
This was going to be hard, if not the most difficult thing we'd ever done urbexwise.
It is 50-100 metres to the Submarine and with a pub close by, cars and people wandering about, occupied boats in the water, timing was going to be key.
We ummed and arred over the best strategy for over an hour, before deciding we just had to go for it while the tide was high!
Getting three blokes and three loads of Camera gear into Links Rovers hard bottomed boat and safely to the sub was a challenge to say the least, but we managed it in about ten minutes. Once on board the next challenge was finding the access point on top of a Submarine in full view of the public, with nowhere to hide and the darkness as our only support.
Its not giving anything away by saying that the access was a hatch, but which one is a different matter. Pigeons seem to have taken a major fancy to U475 and those dirty little fuckers really didn't help us either.
Once inside we were blown away, firstly by the stench of diesel, then by the sheer epicness of the place. We decided to start at one end and work our way back through by splitting up room by room. It was at this point were I feel victim to the Sub being on a list and not sitting nice and flat in the water. I put my Camera on the tripod and stood it up, only to hear a crash as it toppled over into the darkness. Let's just say that my heart sank more than the sub has for a few seconds. Luckily it had only bent the fixed metal lens hood on my 12-24mm lens and no serious damage appeared to have occurred. So we cracked on with capuring this cold war relic the best we could, always wary of the now turning tide and the need to get done in a reasonable time if we didn't want a stuck on the banking going back.
Time flew by and as we were just nicely finishing off and packing up I saw a pair of legs and a torch appear from the deck above!
"Morning!" I said.
"Morning!" came the wary reply and the figure decended into the ship.
Then He said "I take it you're not meant to be on here either?"
"Nope," I repied and "28days?"
"Yes mate" Edd replied.
The panic was over!
It was only Edd and Bigjobs from Manchester! Of all the places to bump into other explorers lol
We had a very brief chat and then headed back to our boat to attempt the perilous journey back to land. The return trip was equally as difficult and this time Cobra manged to get rather wet. As we approached the steps we could see the tide had gone out too much and we ended up beaching on the bank. This meant we all got wet and and flithy getting the boat out and back to the van, but it was worth it.
At this point it may have been a coincidence but the Police helicopter appeared and flew by, but as we quickly got to the point to could leave, it had turned around and was heading back our way. So we beat a hasty retreat just in case and hoped the 28dl guys would be ok and planned to return later in daylight to photograph the Sub in all its glory.
We now headed off to what would be the second explore in our trilogy.
Enjoy:
Three hours later we arrived at the dockside and the reality of what we were about to attempt hit home.
This was going to be hard, if not the most difficult thing we'd ever done urbexwise.
It is 50-100 metres to the Submarine and with a pub close by, cars and people wandering about, occupied boats in the water, timing was going to be key.
We ummed and arred over the best strategy for over an hour, before deciding we just had to go for it while the tide was high!
Getting three blokes and three loads of Camera gear into Links Rovers hard bottomed boat and safely to the sub was a challenge to say the least, but we managed it in about ten minutes. Once on board the next challenge was finding the access point on top of a Submarine in full view of the public, with nowhere to hide and the darkness as our only support.
Its not giving anything away by saying that the access was a hatch, but which one is a different matter. Pigeons seem to have taken a major fancy to U475 and those dirty little fuckers really didn't help us either.
Once inside we were blown away, firstly by the stench of diesel, then by the sheer epicness of the place. We decided to start at one end and work our way back through by splitting up room by room. It was at this point were I feel victim to the Sub being on a list and not sitting nice and flat in the water. I put my Camera on the tripod and stood it up, only to hear a crash as it toppled over into the darkness. Let's just say that my heart sank more than the sub has for a few seconds. Luckily it had only bent the fixed metal lens hood on my 12-24mm lens and no serious damage appeared to have occurred. So we cracked on with capuring this cold war relic the best we could, always wary of the now turning tide and the need to get done in a reasonable time if we didn't want a stuck on the banking going back.
Time flew by and as we were just nicely finishing off and packing up I saw a pair of legs and a torch appear from the deck above!
"Morning!" I said.
"Morning!" came the wary reply and the figure decended into the ship.
Then He said "I take it you're not meant to be on here either?"
"Nope," I repied and "28days?"
"Yes mate" Edd replied.
The panic was over!
It was only Edd and Bigjobs from Manchester! Of all the places to bump into other explorers lol
We had a very brief chat and then headed back to our boat to attempt the perilous journey back to land. The return trip was equally as difficult and this time Cobra manged to get rather wet. As we approached the steps we could see the tide had gone out too much and we ended up beaching on the bank. This meant we all got wet and and flithy getting the boat out and back to the van, but it was worth it.
At this point it may have been a coincidence but the Police helicopter appeared and flew by, but as we quickly got to the point to could leave, it had turned around and was heading back our way. So we beat a hasty retreat just in case and hoped the 28dl guys would be ok and planned to return later in daylight to photograph the Sub in all its glory.
We now headed off to what would be the second explore in our trilogy.
Enjoy:
