Zero
December 30th, 2007, 22:56
Something a bit different to my norm but still mega fun.
Bewl Water
When i was young i had been to Bewl Water over 30 times or so and each time i passed the vortex and tower i never thought anything more of it apart from oooh what is that. But now as my interests have changed and im more familiar with the underground and happened to be in the area with Snappel i thought it would be worth a quick look.
Sure enough it was worth it, after locating the outfall and decided that the brown funk on the floor was just wet concrete and not dirty sludge of death we made our way into the tunnel. Luckily as the water reserve were low there was no water coming down the vortex so the tunnel was dry apart from a slight trickle in the middle. We made our way to end end and stood under the vortex, sunlight streaming in from above. We took a couple of photos before heading back to the entrance.
While walking about Snappel mentioned another one was nearby and on the way back so we thought why not!.
pics
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3301.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3294.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3290.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3284.jpg
Ardingly
After the visit to Bewl Water's Vortex myself and Snappel headed to Ardingly. While not as deep as Bewl it had a different design and was much closer to the edge of the water, with a small bridge connecting out to the control tower. We pulled up and headed to the outfall.
Hmm unlike the dry entrance at bewl this one wasn't. A large collector pool that stopped all the water instantly rushing out into the stream meant we couldn't just waltz up to the entrance like last time. There also wasn't any ladders down onto the dry side so we had no easy way down. We were about to give up when Snappel joked "I have some climbing rope in the car". We looked at each other and at the drop and smiled. We headed back to the car got the rope and began to tie in a series of foot loops to climb down with. Once the rope was set we anchored it to a nearby fence and i drew the short straw to go first.
Ill admit i was a little bit nervous due to the fact as the rope began to take my weight it stretched out and i just felt like it was going to come undone. Finding the loops with my feet also ended up a problem but we both managed to scramble down with no problems.
We headed into the pipe and after a while we came to another little problem. Where the pipe wasn't completely level water has pooled in a 10-20 meter section and we were in trainers!. It didn't look too deep and we thought we come this far so why not, but just to be sure, sock off. We took it at quick step and after two meter the water level rose to a foot deep. Splash, wet shoes!, my god its cold, run". We came to the other side soaked. Small fountains of water came out of the hole in my shoes when i walked.
We eventually came to the end, the vortex and the source of all the water. A small side pipe which was gushing out water like nobodies business!. The vortex was alot smaller then Bewl water and you could see right up to the tower above. Once more we donned the photographic practices then headed back out. The water again filling our shoes and seemed to be alot colder then before. The rope climb was alot harder then before and each time we went from loop to loop we had to haul our weight up. All in all a good little side mission and hopefully well be doing more soon!.
Pics
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3325.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3324.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3320.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3336.jpg
Bewl Water
When i was young i had been to Bewl Water over 30 times or so and each time i passed the vortex and tower i never thought anything more of it apart from oooh what is that. But now as my interests have changed and im more familiar with the underground and happened to be in the area with Snappel i thought it would be worth a quick look.
Sure enough it was worth it, after locating the outfall and decided that the brown funk on the floor was just wet concrete and not dirty sludge of death we made our way into the tunnel. Luckily as the water reserve were low there was no water coming down the vortex so the tunnel was dry apart from a slight trickle in the middle. We made our way to end end and stood under the vortex, sunlight streaming in from above. We took a couple of photos before heading back to the entrance.
While walking about Snappel mentioned another one was nearby and on the way back so we thought why not!.
pics
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3301.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3294.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3290.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/bewl/images/img_3284.jpg
Ardingly
After the visit to Bewl Water's Vortex myself and Snappel headed to Ardingly. While not as deep as Bewl it had a different design and was much closer to the edge of the water, with a small bridge connecting out to the control tower. We pulled up and headed to the outfall.
Hmm unlike the dry entrance at bewl this one wasn't. A large collector pool that stopped all the water instantly rushing out into the stream meant we couldn't just waltz up to the entrance like last time. There also wasn't any ladders down onto the dry side so we had no easy way down. We were about to give up when Snappel joked "I have some climbing rope in the car". We looked at each other and at the drop and smiled. We headed back to the car got the rope and began to tie in a series of foot loops to climb down with. Once the rope was set we anchored it to a nearby fence and i drew the short straw to go first.
Ill admit i was a little bit nervous due to the fact as the rope began to take my weight it stretched out and i just felt like it was going to come undone. Finding the loops with my feet also ended up a problem but we both managed to scramble down with no problems.
We headed into the pipe and after a while we came to another little problem. Where the pipe wasn't completely level water has pooled in a 10-20 meter section and we were in trainers!. It didn't look too deep and we thought we come this far so why not, but just to be sure, sock off. We took it at quick step and after two meter the water level rose to a foot deep. Splash, wet shoes!, my god its cold, run". We came to the other side soaked. Small fountains of water came out of the hole in my shoes when i walked.
We eventually came to the end, the vortex and the source of all the water. A small side pipe which was gushing out water like nobodies business!. The vortex was alot smaller then Bewl water and you could see right up to the tower above. Once more we donned the photographic practices then headed back out. The water again filling our shoes and seemed to be alot colder then before. The rope climb was alot harder then before and each time we went from loop to loop we had to haul our weight up. All in all a good little side mission and hopefully well be doing more soon!.
Pics
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3325.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3324.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3320.jpg
http://www.silentuk.com/ardingly/images/img_3336.jpg