Katabasis by Majyk, Fiona
March 27th, 2009 9:49 PMPictures by Majyk and Fiona
Text by Fiona
Okay, I'm adding this bit at the begining; firstly, please read on to day two. Day one was very cool but has now paled by comparison. Secondly, don't try this at home. Well, you couldn't, the tunnels aren't in your home, but you know what I mean. Technically there is a danger of death on these adventures, although we are not stupid, so we wouldn't be doing it if we thought the risks were too high, I'm just saying that if you are someone who has stumbled on this site and wants to go adventuring use your common sense, a bit of planning, and don't get crushed/drowned/stuck/impaled or anything else.
We are doing this task in a fairly epic way, so it will take a few trips. I am writing this after day one, where we went to the western end of the Island. We decided to explore left over and abandoned military structures, as most of them are creepy and underground. Going underground was the best type of underworld we could think of, short of joining the mafia (do we have mafia on the Isle of Wight? Probably, buggers get everywhere), and I didn't fancy that. It will be very interesting and require a couple of stealth missions. The Isle of Wight was always strategically important as a place to spot approaching enemies from Europe and hopefully blow the crap out of them before they get here. So scattered around the coast there are lots of secret observation type bunkers sunk into the cliffs and the hills, as well as some larger structures with areas above and below ground.
By the way, I apologise for my spelling.
I am going to include some of the pictures in the text here but there are going to be way too many so a lot will be at the end. There will be more tales from our adventure attached to them so go on, take a look.
So we started in Freshwater and walked up a bloody big hill to Tennyson Monument (the poet, he lived at the bottom of the bloody big hill, and wrote a lot of his poems here). From there we could see both of the days destinations, and realised we maybe should have parked a bit closer. Oh well.
This is the view to our first destination, the old rocket testing site, nestled in the cliffs above The Needles and Freshwater Bay. It was very warm and bright and glorious and it felt fantastic being out with one of my best friends on an adventure.
He had never been to the rocket testing site before, and its pretty impressive. It feels very post-apocalyptic. The area around it is grass but it always seems pretty dead and dried out, and theres not a lot else visible, apart from a few bunnies and a long drop to the sea. We may come stay here at night some time which will be incredibly creepy. There is no light pollution here so it knows how to get REALLY dark, and its always windy so you have the feeling that someone could sneak right up on you and you wouldn't hear them. It is a big structure, rockets were strapped in either end to have their engines tested, but there are just a couple of underground rooms.
I had brought with me a surprise box of donuts and a little stove to make coffee so we found a good spot and set up.
Yummy donuts for us. Omnomnom.
Majyk found this room somewhere, but I must have missed it, I don't recognise it. I did go off ahead to be amazed by the view out over the Needles.
After exploring the rocket testing site we went to the old battery. Parts are still locked up so we had to peer down through rusty grates but some bits had been turned into and exhibition.
We also found this tunnel a bit further away. We will try this another time...
Then we called M to come drive us back to Majyks van, because we had underestimated the length of the walk and were in danger of running out of day. She was more than happy to come join us but is not collaborating, as she has her own plan for this task. I expect I will go along for that too, I am often photographer for her and Cookie.
We headed off to Fort Victoria, stopping for icecream on the way and finding a GIANT GRIBBLE WORM!
At Fort Vic there are rooms and tunnels leading back under the woods, I think they were ammunition stores. I hadn't been into them before but one had a light well back in the woods somewhere and I thought we could drop, um, I mean carefully lower, Majyk in so he could have a look. Excitingly, someone had been there before us and kicked the locked up entrance open so we all got to descend the murky passage. It was a bit creepy.
My flash is really powerful and so the pictures don't come out looking very atmospheric. You will just have to take my word for it that it was kind of dark and creepy in there. Majyk felt very uncomfortable about the place, especially when we found some suspicious things in the corner.
This is the bottom of the light-well, they way we thought we were going to have to get in. Deeper than I thought.
We explored a bit more. Found a bricked up tunnel with a hole just big enough to get a photograph through. It was to dark for us to see inside but the camera with a flash picked up this:
We went back into the woods looking for another way in but no joy. Went to look at some other bits I'd seen in the past too, but no way in there either.
Well. End of day one.
Day two. Excitement and joy.
Well, a couple of weeks on and we are onto the second leg of our adventure. I went online looking at maps and interesting websites to add to my list of places to explore for this task, in case there was anywhere I had not found before. Boy was there! You think you know a place...
So, we decided the scope of this task would be West Wight only, there was so much, and the other adventures would be had anyway, in the future, maybe as part of something else.
Today we visited two more places, both of which were new to me. I was excited, but cautious, in case they didn't work out. The reports I had found were quite old so we had no idea if the places would still be accessible. We started our adventure within sight of the Old Battery and the rocket testing site, but somewhat closer to sea level.
I have circled in red the approximate location of our destination. We didn't know exactly what we were looking for then, but now I have been there I can spot it in the long distance shots. As you can see it is a really long way. We had to pick a day with an exceptionally low tide and time it carefully so we didn't get cut off. It still took us an hour, picking across, around and over slippery rocks. It was hard going, had to concentrate all the time so as not to turn an ankle.
This bit was particularly nice.
We eventually came across signs that the place actually existed. A patch of concrete high up the cliff. Higher than we expected. I supposed the entrance had to be clear of high tide. I hoped really hard that we could A. find it and B. reach it.
We walked around a jutting bit of cliff to more rocks. All pretty non-discript, but I recalled the account I had found mentioned an old rock fall which had partly obscured the entrance. After a bit of climbing- success!
We were somewhat unprepared for what we found. It was a tight sqeeze for me between fallen rocks and under a girder but then ahead of us was a tunnel, carved straight from the rock, that just went straight back into the cliff, into darkness. I was expecting a couple of gun placements in the cliff. Not this. It all looked pretty stable. The rock is all sort of one solid lump, so it comes off the cliff face in big chunks but these tunnels seemed less prone to collapse than they would be insome other geology. They had already been here a bloody long time. You could hear as well as feel the wind rushing down the tunnel. So ahead we went.
We came to a T-junction which led off into absolute darkness in both directions. I decided I need to get a decent torch. We were so amazed. We went left.
We were slow and cautious. I don't know about Majyk, but old horror movies were running through my head. I was picturing pale clammy long limbed monsters skulking in the darkness awaiting meat. I didn't feel as frightened as I felt I ought to have done though. It was more of an exagerated alertness than actual fear, at this stage. We came to a crossroads. The path to the left had a faint light at the end, it led back out to the cliff face. The paths to the right and ahead both had stones from the roof littering the floor, making them a tighter squeeze. There were freaky distant noises coming from the right, which led deeper into the cliff. We opted for the left hand turn.
We came to a room with a little window looking out over the sea. This must be one of the small high-up holes we passed on our way here. Check out the graffiti on the wall from 1965. We also found critters.
We went back to the cross roads and turned left, continuing on our previous trajectory, exclaiming loudly in wonder, and marvelling at our own bravery, and possibly stupidity. Just a bit further.
and on...
and on...
My legs were a bit wobbly by this point.
There were two more left turns that led to rooms with views out over the ocean. In the one below I have circled where we originaly walked from. This room was quit high up, and clean and open. Would we be brave enough to sleep here one night? Perhaps not. We would be stranded till next tide and it would be unbelievably creepy. Shudder.
We had to walk back past the scary tunnel with the noises coming from it that led deeper into the cliff. Damn it, we just couldn't resist. The first bit was tight, then it opened up and sloped gently upwards. The alarming noises became louder then became loud, watery gurgles. There was another turning to the left which sloped sharply down and the noises were eminating from there. We hurried swiftly past.
This tunnel looks quite friendly from the pictures but believe me it was really, really scary. My adrenaline was up by this point and I was glancing around in a nervous paranoid manner and gasping ocasionally.
By the way, I apologise if my writing deteriorates. It is now four in the morning and today I have been on these two adventures, written a whole essay for my university course, and uploaded the days pictures. But I really, really want to get this written and posted 'cos I'm still stoked.
Where was I? Oh yes. Eventually we came to this room. It had a shaft going straight up, was originally a lift from the Battery above. We were really deep underground at this point, inside a lot of rock, and having a black space like that opening up above you was pretty unnerving to say the least. The flash makes these places look well lit but inreality our torches did nowhere near such a good job of illuminating things. In fact, I took a lot of pictures just so I could look at the screen and see what lay ahead. No kidding.
We hastened back but had to pass the gurgly scary tunnel again and just couldn't resist. It curved gently down and eventually filled with water. It looks like the tunnel carries on down and half submerged there seems to be a bridge over a lower tunnel crossing this one. Don't know if pumps used to keep this clear of water, there were pipes, or of it was just a reservoir. I am sure the water was fresh, I'll test it next time. It was unbelievably clear.
One more bit to explore and then a hasty retreat before the tide comes in. Unbelievable. Just amazing, stunning, and so BIG.
On the way back along the base of the cliff I stopped to collect some free dinner and give Bob (the duck) a swim.
I still had to finish my essay for uni at this point, so Majyk was going to drop me back at my office. But on the way we wanted to reccy our last destination. We needed to find it, stealthily, in daylight. I am not going to give too much information on the location of this one as access may be cut off if too many people are spotted in the vicinity. There are plenty of clues here though if any explorers want to find it, just treat it with repect and leave it how you found it please.
It really was easy to find the entrance, if you knew what you were looking for. In a big grassy area used for leisure activities, on a hillside in plain view. A small square hatch and a vent. That's all. There was noone around so Majyk sidled up to it and had closer look. He was excited, was pretty sure we could get in with no effort at all. Sod it, tonight. We have stamina. He dropped me off and I finshed writing about policy making blah blah blah.
At 11.30 he knocked on my van door. We had a coffee and headed back out. A bit of a drive but worth it. What we had located was a ROC bunker. I have done a bit of research and it seems that they were set up just for observation, during the cold war. Apparently they were to monitor fallout in the event of a nuclear strike. They are quite small, just an observation room and a small toilet really, and I wondered if they would really offer very much protection, and what were the monitors supposed to eat whilst they were observing this fallout? Very peculiar. On one website there was a rather optimistic little drawing of two operatives sitting happily watching an explosion outside on their little screen.
We arrived in some very good darkness, no light pollution and no moon. I stumbled into a ditch and nearly kneecapped myself on a sign. Discovered it was hard to even find something right out in the open in the pitch black, but we did. I didn't fancy our chances of an easy entry, but we got one. There was a bit of a clang as the hatch opened and there were lights on in buildings not too very far away, so we sat still for a few minutes to make sure we had not been discovered. We needn't have worried. We wnet down one at a time because I was paranoid about the hatch closing and us getting stuck. Majyk bravely went first and while he was down there a fox ran straight past me, just a few feet away. If we were quiet enough not to bother a fox, I'm sure we hadn't alerted any humans. My turn.
So there I was dissapearing down a hole in the ground. Just like that, straight down a narrow ladder. And I have walked past here so many times before, unsuspecting. Very scary, descending into darkness. No torch till half way down, don't want to be seen. Magyk was very brave to go first. I at least had seen a picture and had a vague inkling of what was down there, to him it had been a mystery. Got to the bottom and all fear dissipated. Somebody had laid a rather nice, albeit rather old and smelly, carpet. How scary is a bunker with a carpet? Not very. I took a couple of pics then decided to scoot. Very peculiar. It is a bunker, underground, from the cold war, but it is small and strangely mundane. Like maybe being in the living room of a squatted house or something. There was still a sink in the little room. Just wierd.
I took a few pics and scarpered. Climbing out was actually the scariest bit, because all the darkness is behind you.
Its not letting me add the last couple of pictures for some reason, and I have to sleep, yawn. Am going to submit now. Good night.
01 First we go here.jpg
First we climbed to the top of this hill. The tip of the cliff in the distance is our first destination.
02 Then there later.jpg
I turned to my right and took this picture. Our second destination for today is just along from the building stuck out in the sea. We decided to call M and get a lift back from the Needles to Majyks van and drive to the second destination, otherwise we would run out of day.
02b We are lucky to live here.JPG
We are lucky to live in such a beautiful place. Magyk wonders how anyone could ever move away.
03 New exhibition.jpg
The sign says 'The Cold War on the Isle of Wight'. Seems they have opened another area to the public. Hope the bit we're going to is still suitably abandoned.
04 With some newer buildings.jpg
I don't know what these newer buildings are for. Some kind of communications or something I guess.
05 Barren and creepy.jpg
This place always has a post-apocalyptic feel.
06 First underground room.jpg
A bit wet and manky. The flash on the camera is too good and all my underground shots are too well lit to be suitably atmospheric. Oh well. You'll have to take my word for it being dim and a bit creepy.
06b Sunlight from above.JPG
Sunlight coming in from above.
07 A bit manky.jpg
Exploring.
08 Rusty blast proof door.jpg
A rusty blast proof door. This room is sort of half underground with observation windows and a very strong door. It is real close to where the rockets would have been strapped in and maybe had flames licking around it when they did testing. Very exciting.
09 Observation window.jpg
This glass is really really thick too. Now its broken you can't see much through it any more.
11 Someones bed.jpg
There were two survival bags. Doesn't look very comfortable to me. What type of lunatic would want to sleep in a place like this. Well, apart from us.
12 Stop for coffee.jpg
My neat little stove. It is an army one and it folds up tiny with the fuel inside and fits into the cup/pan. Excellent for adventures, almost fits in a pocket.
12b Yum.JPG
And I reveal the box of surprise donuts. Tadahhhh!
13 and donuts.jpg
Yum yum yum yum.
14 Omnomnom.jpg
Yum yum yum yum.
14b I look ridiculous.JPG
I got very excited by this delicious donut. My toes were wiggling and everything. I look very silly in this picture!
15 Yes, he got stuck.jpg
Majyk got a bit stuck in this hole. Silly Majyk.
16 Thought I'd include this.jpg
Thought I would include this picture as it is one of the best views on the Island.
17 Useful sign.jpg
Rocket testing.
17b Where is this Majyk.JPG
I don't recognise this room. Where is it Majyk?
17c I missed it.JPG
I guess I missed it.
18 Old battery, through bars.jpg
This is at the Old Battery, just a few minutes walk from the rocket site. Some bits are open to the public but this shot was taken through a locked gate.
19 Entrances locked.jpg
Thats the gate I was looking through, on the left. Don't know how far underground the rooms go.
20 Open to public.jpg
This bit has been opened to the public. I wonder if they sell potato chips?
21 Cone.jpg
Further down to the exhibit.
22 See next picture.jpg
See next picture for a look at how this room was when it was in use.
23 As it was.jpg
Tadah.
24 Model sattelite.jpg
At this point Majyk unfortunately got landed on by a sattelite that fell out of the sky. Not really.
25 As it was.jpg
Ariel view of how it was back then. Most of the above-ground buildings have gone now.
26 To return to another day.jpg
We think we may try this one another day, when certain skills have been perfected.
27 We also passed this.jpg
We passed this on the way to being picked up by M for the second part of the days adventure. It made us laugh, so I thought I would share. There is a pretired task that involves liberating a gnome for travel. Hmmmm....
28 and this.jpg
I had to show you this which we passed too. It is a gribble worm. Yes, they do exist, although I suspect that they don't actually look like this! They are the little buggers that eat wooden piers and cause many thousands of pounds worth of damage. Apparantly they metabolise the wood in a completely unique way and may hold a clue for the next generation of biofuels...
29 Victim.jpg
A lot of the underground places lead into the side of cliffs and hills, so they are east to access. I still count them as underground though. Majyk decided to play at being a murder victim.
30 Gave this one a miss.jpg
We decided to give this one a miss. Those brambles are very painful.
31 Excitement.jpg
This was very exciting. Didn't think we would be able to get in here but someone had busted it open before we got there so we achieved entrance without guilt.
32 What is it.jpg
This room was very dark and creepy and icky, but once again my amazing flash makes it look sparkly and light and happy. Majyk had a bad feeling in here. I wouldn't want to come here at night myself.
33 Highly suspicious.jpg
I am sure this had been used for something suspicious but we were too naive or stupid to work out what. The wine glasses hav been wrapped in clear plastic and something has been burnt. Not necessarily a good place to be.
34 Thankyou.jpg
Well, thank you, we will enjoy our stay.
35 Glad we didn't have to come this way.jpg
We thought we were going to have to drop, er, I mean lower, Majyk down this light-well back in the woods to gain access to this bit.
36 More.jpg
Another room, bit boring though.
36b Interesting.JPG
There was another tunnel bricked up. Just one little hole to peek through.
37 Closed off.jpg
Couldn't see much through the hole (idiots, exploring underground with no flashlight), but the camera has a flash.
38 Want to get in there.jpg
This is what the camera saw. Looks exciting.
39 Looking for entrance.jpg
We looked for a way in back in the woods, like the light-well for the other tunnel, but no luck unfortunatly. Found this pit and strange little turret in line with the entrance though. Probably connected.
40 Show off.jpg
Now you're just showing off.
41 This must lead somewhere.jpg
Further along the path there were these two little concrete and brick structures, looked a bit like chimneys coming out of the ground. Unfortunatly we couldn't find any clues to where they went.
42 random chairlift.jpg
A chairlift. Not what you expect to find on the Isle of Wight. It wasn't running and the chairs were swaying sadly in the wind.
43 Todays first destination.jpg
It looks like we have a really long way to go. The rocks in the distance are the (fairly famous) Needles. Couldn't spot the tunnels from here, but just can, now I know where to look.
44 road to nowhere.jpg
The end of the road for Majyk. Erosion a constant problem, stairs always gone. Fortunatly, this time there were more stairs, but no useful rope.
45 over there.jpg
I have circled our destination in red. Yes, it was a bloody long way. Almost a mile over slippery rocks I reckon. We had to pick a day with a super low tide and time ourselves carefully.
46 very pretty.jpg
A particularly scenic part of the journey. Took us the best part of an hour to get this far.
47 first clue.jpg
The first clue that we were near, you can just see a small opening in the rock, quite high up.
48 second clue.jpg
Second clue. This is deffinatly manmade. Again, rather high up. Hope we can find and get to the entrance!
49 really big clue.jpg
This was a bit of a giveaway, but I guess very few people ever see it. I suppose people in boats may get close enough. Sure not many people know its here though.
50 huzzah.jpg
After a bit of climbing, found the entrance, partially covered by an old rock fall. Was a tight squeeze to get in. We were not expecting what came next...
51 Wow.jpg
A cold, dark tunnel, leading straight back into the cliff. Carved straight out of the rock. Seems pretty stable. The rock is chalk and is mostly kind of all one lump.
52 Blimey.jpg
We couldn't believe it. The tunnel hit a T-junction and split left and right. There was a cold wind blowing through and a faint wooshing noise. Would have been pitch dark without flashlights.
53 Amazing.jpg
We turned left. The tunnel was long and had other tunnels branching off of it. We were stunned. We had not anticipated anything quite this cool, and also really kind of scared. We were aware this adventure was abit stupid in some ways, but we are sensibly cautious, and its so worth the risk.
54 Its huge.jpg
There were three left turns to rooms looking out through the cliff, these were what we had spotted on the way here. My Grandparents say they remember hearing there were tunnels here, and that several prisoners had died making them.
55 old graffiti.jpg
I think this was the first room. Check out the old graffiti from 1965. Didn't notice it at the time, just spotted it in the photograph.
56 Alien life forms.jpg
Alien life forms! You will notice that the finger in the picture is a bit strange. That is because Majyk is a cabinet maker (extraordinaire), and he cut the end of his finger of with a power planer. Was very pretty, I have pictures that the doctor took because he wanted a record, the bone got kind of shaved to a point.
57 scary as.jpg
Going further along the long tunnel. Really scary. Legs a bit shaky.
58 cave in.jpg
We decided to proceed. Okay, so we're a bit dumb. Really scary!
59 and on.jpg
This really was bigger and more exciting than we could have possibly hoped.
60 jittery.jpg
Steps. We were dimly aware of a big gurgly wierd noise coming from somewhere. We had passed one tunnel, a right hand turn, leading back further into the cliff. I think it was coming from there. Extra creepy.
61 where we came from.jpg
A view from one of the rooms in the cliff face looking back to where we had come from. Also the famous (moderatly) Alum Bay coloured sands.
62 thick cable.jpg
I think there was a spotlight in this room, that is what the thick electric cable is for maybe?
63 how rude.jpg
Some very rude graffiti!
64 more.jpg
Just kept getting creepier.
65 intrepid.jpg
I am the intrepid explorer!
66 really scary.jpg
We decided to brave the scary tunnel mentioned earlier which led further into the cliff. The first section was a bit tight due to partial collapse and as we went a very peculiar watery noise got louder and louder. We went past a side tunnel that led dooooowwwwn and it was super scary with loud noises so we initially scurried past it.
67 don't like it.jpg
Scary tunnel leading further into the cliff. The first section was filled with rubble and quite claustrophobic.
68 lift room.jpg
Deep in the bowels of the earth we found this room...
69 looking up.jpg
This shaft goes all the way up to the Needles Old Battery, where we went on the first day of our adventure. We were very deep underground and very far into the cliff, having come through long and really scary tunnels cut through the rock.
70 a long way.jpg
I can't believe this has always been here and I've never known, it is amazing. You can find the best stuff so close to home.
71 gurgles.jpg
We decided we had to brave the scary noisy tunnel that led down. At the bottom we found this. Don't know if it used to be pumped free of water, there seemed to be tunnels going left and right at a lower angle. Am pretty sure this is fresh water. Bob the duck told me afterwards I should have let him have a swim in here. The water was amazingly pure and clear.
72 underwater tunnels.jpg
Hard to tell from this pic but it looks like an underwater tunnel leads off.
73 and on.jpg
Exploring the last bit of tunnel, a right turn at the first T-junction. I am sure we are at least as low as the watery tunnels but there is no wet here. Maybe the other bit was actually a reservoir.
74 and back.jpg
The tunnel back towards the exit, air and sunshine, had to catch the tide. Considering doing a night here one day but would be just about the scariest thing ever. We would be stuck till next low tide and it would be seriously creepy at night. Just imagining being in there at night freaks me out. Mind you, wouldn't exactly make it much darker inside.
75 bonus dinner.jpg
On the way back I collected some free dinner. Always feel a bit guilty tipping these little buggers into boiling water but they taste good. Could live quite well out here. Winkles, limpets, seaweed, sea beet (relation of spinach) and probably seagull eggs at a pinch.
76 bob.jpg
Bob finaly got his swim.
77 going down.jpg
And later that night we were very pleased to find we could enter this small secret location.
78 carpet.jpg
We expected it to be scary. We were on a nighttime stealth mission and descended down a narrow hole, down a ladder, into blackness, because we didn't want torchlight being seen, and what did we find: someone had given the place a nice carpet. Not really scary after that discovery.
79 not actually scary.jpg
Really quite mundane, but secret and underground at the same time. The entrance hatch is just sat there, in a big patch of grass on a hillside.
80 a sink.jpg
A small room with a sink. I think it also used to have a chemical toilet.
81 and out.jpg
Up and out. This is actually the scariest bit because you've got all the dark behind you.
82 exactly how we found it.jpg
I would like to officially add that like all good explorers we left it EXACTLY AS WE FOUND IT. We haven't given the location because it is in a visible place and if anyone is seen going in and out access may be made harder. Any determined explorer should be able to locate it from clues given here anyway. Just be careful.
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shplank, war, tide, fire, sea, whywait16 comment(s)
Wow. A whole network of tunnels inside a cliff where the military used to test rockets. I wonder whether any other places like this exist in the world.
The tunnels in the cliff were older than the rocket testing site. There are two batterys on the cliffs by the needles, the old battery, and the new battery, as well as the rocket testing site and some other modern buildings. The bit I refered to as the old battery in the first half was actually the new battery, I think, although its still pretty old. I didn't bother with the actual Needles old battery because you have to pay to get in, which spoils the fun. The tunnels were connected to the old, old battery. So amazing. So I think we investigated stuff from the first, second and the cold war.
There are loads of places like this in the world, and you can find them through official and urben exploration websites. Well, theres certainly a lot in the UK anyway. Just on the Isle of Wight I still have a large number of sites too explore, although probably none as spectacular as that gem. One dissapointment that I discovered whilst researching this that the big bunker I always believed to be a myth did actually exist, on top of Ventnor Down, where I thought it was, but I never went looking for it. Didn't think it could possible be there without everyone knowing about it. But people were getting in and exploring for years. The bungallow which disguised the entrance has now been demolished and the hatch capped with 18" of concrete. I missed it.
I had also heard rumors of the tunnels we explored yesterday, but never followed them up before. Must remember in future: listen to rumors.
i like your style.
i also like how often you talk about the tunnels as a place to live.
Me and Majyk always have fun planning what we would do if 'the world ended'. He always looks for a defensible position, I always look for a place with more than one exit and a food supply. The tunnels yesterday were good on all those counts, and I think a plentiful supply of fresh water, as well as plentiful food. Cold though, with an unrealistic treck for fuel for heat and cooking. Diet of raw shellfish, seaweed, greens and seagull eggs anyone?
This is amazing. Your donuts and coffee look jarringly welcoming in such a scary place. Of the many meals players have documented in unusual places, this is on my top list of ones I wish I could've been there for. Please note that I do not envy you the horrible scary crumbling abandoned flooding corridors to get there though; that was just what made the surprise of warm coffee and donuts so delightful.
I think the Isle of Wight would be an unusual hotspot of abandoned military entrenchments, so I would be surprised to know other players have remotely so exciting an opportunity with this kind of man-made underworld from a forgotten age. Some combination of the decline of a massive empire, outdated technology making a site strategically unimportant in modern war, a low population density that hasn't rebuilt or restored the infrastructure, and really remarkable geology that allows tunelling, preserves it, and makes it only unreasonably difficult but not impossible to access. Then again, I'm no war buff, so I'd love to be proven wrong.
This is the sort of tasking SF0 needs more of. Utterly brilliant, from start to end. I take my hat off to you both for your sheer balls to go into a mysterious, black, crumbling set of tunnels in a cliff :)
That was amazing.
Like, really really really amazing.
As in, the kind of amazing we have a word for around here.
Yeah, we need a word coined after you guys, "fairly epic", uh?
Is the kind of things people makes up and write about and makes readers drool, only you guys actually do them.
You guys win.
That's really amazing -- honestly top notch.
And now, I have to admit something...when I first saw the IOWØ logo, i thought it was Iowa, not the Isle of Wight. Now that I know that there's an IOWØ, I might consider visiting after getting into Europe...
AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!!!!!!!
Jeez, if I could award you more than 5 points, I would. You deserve it.
wow me n fee thought we'd get good points for this but neither of us was expecting anything anywhere this good of a response!! thankyou ladys and gentlemen but please give fee more due i might be the adventurous nutter climbing the cliff to find it, but fee is the one who took the time to put together a good praxis (because im rubbish at it!) and do some amazing research. so if you please, give fee a round of applause beacause i couldnt have done it without her!
Thanks fee!!
Very underworld! Glad you made it in and out without any horror movie stuff happening.
It took a while for Cookie to get back online to review this praxis he heard rumours of from M. Cookie is very impressed and has now found another potential place to orchestrate his world dominion. Have many cookies! M is duely disapointed on missing out on such an adventure, but the fish needed to be gutted.
Firstly, the tunnel we found on the first day and photographed through a small hole in the brick; me and Majyk went back there a month or two later after tracking down someone who had accessed them before and begging for a hint of how to get in. We had to go into some woods and find a random pit filled with barbed wire and rotten wood and crap. After climbing down into it we had to excavate one corner and slide down a slimy vertical hole, bending in half a few feet down to slide through a narrow horizontal slot into pitch blackness. It was REALLY scary. I couldn't have done it if Magyk hadn't been brave enough to go first. We got covered in ook. Inside there was a tunnel and a few rooms. I think it used to hold a big machine of some kind and we had come in through the old coal chute. I almost crapped myself when a lost bunny ran over my foot in the dark. Thought it was a giant rat! Not generally affraid of rats but up close in an enclosed space they are not my favourite! Was happy to see daylight again! Had trouble squeezing back out. My boyfriend (now ex!) valiantly stood by and offered to send Magyks girlfriend down to help me. Sadly, I was not carrying my camera that day.
The second thing is that one of the engineers who headed the project at the rocket testing site has written an autobiography, and I am publishing it, doing the layouts and stuff. Wonder if there will be any interesting nuggets in there.
Beautiful. Brilliant. Amazing.
Not since Myrna and her brother and friends went into the secret depths of St. Louis have I seen a task this good.