Monday, August 20, 2012

XXXX


Looking for places to go at high tide, in a city that bends around a river that shortly arrives at its destination, makes for a little challenge.

After some discussion we headed to somewhere we knew would be flooded downstream but not higher up. We called NIOU and let him know we would be about an hour before we met him in the city and headed to where Aydun had seen a nice spot to get in upstream, albeit a little less welcoming than I was accustomed to.


Once we were in, there were a few pipes running along together with portholes between them every so often and a junction now and again with a manhole. One such junction also had a nice little UPVC pipe leading off into the darkness. Having thought they were exclusively the domain of sewers, I stood, nay hunched corrected. We decided this was a slippery journey best left for another time, and headed on.

I was in the front when I heard Aydun start laughing and calling out about something. He had found a new friend, the patron saint of drainers it seemed was watching over us.
Not at all creepy.



After some time the water rose and rose and little fishes swam and tickled our legs as we sloshed deeper in. The was also a rather large dead fish in one area which strangely didn't smell at all.


Several precarious camera balancing acts later I decided I had made enough cheesy drain portraiture and we should probably head back. Forward was getting pretty deep and we had bigger plans for the night yet to come.


On the way back up stream, we decided it would be best to avoid leaving the way we came as it was a tad suspect to begin with. So we started keeping an eye and ear out for good manholes. A few noisy discards, we found something that seemed suitable. Several minutes of me burning out redbacks with a lighter and we had a way out. 

Aydun kindly popped it, and as he emerged sensor lights flooded onto the scene. Too late to turn back now, I clumsily emerged after him scrambling onto some mown lawn. We were in someone's front yard just under their porch, except their front yard didn't have a road next to it, just a long driveway past what must have been the front house of a double block. 

I pushed the manhole to, with a unceremonious crash and bang sure to raise an eyebrow, and we hightailed it to what we hoped was the street. Aydun was happy, it was his first manhole popped from inside. Once we got to the road we cleared out fairly quickly, lest the disrupted occupants decided to have a peak up the road. 

We happily marched squelching along the road, returning to Aydun's car. Upon arrival he happily surveyed that his car had not been stripped and put on blocks and we took off to meet NIOU in the CBD, where great plans for 73 awaited us

4 comments:

  1. Fantastic insight into another world. Great read and images.

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    1. Thanks David :) Glad you like photos and blurbs

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  2. Sick shit, I hope I can find this hole, though I'm not liking the knee deep sludge. Was this all fairly 'fresh', as in no sewage?

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    1. Hey Glen, it's not so bad, only the odd dead fish bobbing around and normal drain smells :) it's not the norm to find sewerage in Brisbane storm water systems, it has its own tunnels. That said, you do come across it, not exactly sure how or why.

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