36DD to Underbank Reservoir, Stockbridge June 2011
As reported recently by Muttley, WB, and Ojay this place is huge and stretches the length of the TATA/Corus Steel Works up to Underbank Reservoir and joins the river Don further downstream.
After missing a previous chance to give this one a go me and AEM had an early start and wad0red up in the blistering sun ready for some culvert action.
We had an idea of what it would be like from the other reports but had heard there may be more worth exploring further upstream from where the other reports stop, so without further ado on with the pics...
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We set off cautiously through the deep water in to the first culverted section taking advantage of the flat floor... until the uneven ankle breaking fun began.
Quickly moving upstream we entered the main culverted section
We then reached a section with daylight and a very tempting ladder but as it was broad daylight thought it may be best on this occasion to keep a low profile
The next section is a decent length of stone construction
Moving on up the construction changes to concrete
...with the odd infalls
The concrete section goes on for a while, looks like after the floods they did a fair bit of re-wiring down here.
Up around the corner and the construction changes again
Then splits in to two concrete box sections (excuse for cheeky people shot)
Another inlet that had that good old steel industry smell to the water, we both had a quick nosey and AEM got a snap around the corner...
The top of the box section with the snakes wedding of cabling just before where the other reports ended
We manoeuvred around the debris through the deep water
Quickly coming back in to the open we get spotted by some guy on a fag break asking wtf we are doing, he didn't seem to care that we were there though
We pass quite a few active buildings with wide open windows, lights on etc so made a move up stream
We get to the next section and back in to the darkness
This goes on for a while but thankfully has a flat floor so made good progress
Back out in the open and wherever we are in the steelworks its busy with traffic (loads of wagons went past) and cars are parked riverside, it didn't help that this section is wadoring through deep sections of the river
There was one final short culverted section, a bridge and we were in the river at the back of houses.
We'd come this far so may as well make our way to the reservoir
After negotiating the deep sections of the river and coming close to the reservoir we find hard proof of Sam Fox
A few games of balance on the pipework (some comedy moments) to avoid deep water and we were almost there
Finally, we get to the bottom of the overflow and have a well deserved rest after 3 hours or so of working up a sweat on one of the hottest days this year!
Cheers for lookin!! 
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