This had been on the cards for a while, since I saw Lodestar's report on Porter brook and wondered why nobody else had done it... I guess the lure of the 'Mega' culvert puts people off doing Porter Brook itself.
Anyway, Business partners for this venture were Muttley & Mstarmatt.
Subterranean Ducks, Pigeons & Wad0r testing were on the cards.
:
Matt was itching to bust his Megatron cherry and good lad he got some waders at the last minute to join us as we had agreed amongst ourselves it was worth doing the whole stretch in one night...
So, we ditched our cars near the 'Normal' Megatron entrance and headed off up to the top end of porter brook in a spare vehicle, we didn't fancy wad0ring back up the river once we'd been down it!
With myself & Muttley dressed up like clowns with our chest waders, poor old matt felt ill equipped but I was confident he'd make it through with thigh length waders this time, it turns out 'Only just' though, as some sections were getting over bollock-depth for the central channels.
Porter Brook itself is an excellent mooch, just the right balance of challenge vs cool stuff. I'd say its more of a challenge than megatron itself, once we got down to the railway station it was nearly dark so we felt confident to break cover and leg it underneath the transport police HQ and onwards into the darkness...
Inside Megatron there was a distinct foggyness to the place, I suspect caused by the rapid drop in temperature. It had been hot all day and the lack of cloud cover made for a 10+ degree drop when the sun went down, this made taking photos quite difficult towards the end, not to mention seeing where the hell we were going...
Anyway, we made it all the way down to the parabolic brick arch, got a couple of shots, Matts megatron (and drain0r) cherry had been well & truly busted so we wandered back out towards the mid-point where we had ditched the cars earlier and tried to pull some Sheff student gash with our lovely rubber gear. We failed.
Anywho, some pics: -
All in all a great night, i'm aching all over this morning though... It really was a full body work out. Big ups to Matt for coming all the way.
Thanks for looking.
WB.
Anyway, Business partners for this venture were Muttley & Mstarmatt.
Subterranean Ducks, Pigeons & Wad0r testing were on the cards.
:Matt was itching to bust his Megatron cherry and good lad he got some waders at the last minute to join us as we had agreed amongst ourselves it was worth doing the whole stretch in one night...
So, we ditched our cars near the 'Normal' Megatron entrance and headed off up to the top end of porter brook in a spare vehicle, we didn't fancy wad0ring back up the river once we'd been down it!
With myself & Muttley dressed up like clowns with our chest waders, poor old matt felt ill equipped but I was confident he'd make it through with thigh length waders this time, it turns out 'Only just' though, as some sections were getting over bollock-depth for the central channels.
Porter Brook itself is an excellent mooch, just the right balance of challenge vs cool stuff. I'd say its more of a challenge than megatron itself, once we got down to the railway station it was nearly dark so we felt confident to break cover and leg it underneath the transport police HQ and onwards into the darkness...
Inside Megatron there was a distinct foggyness to the place, I suspect caused by the rapid drop in temperature. It had been hot all day and the lack of cloud cover made for a 10+ degree drop when the sun went down, this made taking photos quite difficult towards the end, not to mention seeing where the hell we were going...
Anyway, we made it all the way down to the parabolic brick arch, got a couple of shots, Matts megatron (and drain0r) cherry had been well & truly busted so we wandered back out towards the mid-point where we had ditched the cars earlier and tried to pull some Sheff student gash with our lovely rubber gear. We failed.
Anywho, some pics: -
Rubbly Bit towards the start of Porter Brook underground section.
Refurbished spray-cete business
Boring concrete box culvert (boooo!)
Grillz
Rubber Dinghy Rapids!
(was tempted to come back here with a kayak or something)
Same place, looking upstream
Pigeon nest, she wouldn't move even as we got right next to her to get a couple of shots.
This is more like it... truly ancient culvertry as we get closer to the city centre
Lovely waterfall bit, the water behind here was the deepest i've ever waded through!!
The 'tron
...and again looking the other way, showing the different levels of ceiling
Refurbished spray-cete business
Boring concrete box culvert (boooo!)
Grillz
Rubber Dinghy Rapids!
(was tempted to come back here with a kayak or something)
Same place, looking upstream
Pigeon nest, she wouldn't move even as we got right next to her to get a couple of shots.
This is more like it... truly ancient culvertry as we get closer to the city centre
Lovely waterfall bit, the water behind here was the deepest i've ever waded through!!
The 'tron
...and again looking the other way, showing the different levels of ceiling
All in all a great night, i'm aching all over this morning though... It really was a full body work out. Big ups to Matt for coming all the way.
Thanks for looking.
WB.
