Urban Exploration

Apparently this is going on everywhere. I never knew a term existed until yesterday, and now it is all I can think about. Wikipedia explains that Urban Exploration (aka UE or urbex) is a worldwide hobby in which people enter (often illegally) abandonments, active buildings, catacombs, sewers and storm drains, and transit or utility tunnels in order to look around and take photos. This hobby comes with rules too; you are not supposed to break, vandalise, or change anything. You are supposed to be able to get in and out without detection with the aim of obtaining some nice photos, and leave behind only your footprints.

'Rules shmules' you say? Rules are for squares right? Well in that case, let me highlight the risks!! According to Wiki, many old abandoned structures feature hazards such as unstable structures, unsafe floors, asbestos, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, exposed electrical wires and entrapment hazards. Asbestos is a long term health risk for urban explorers, along with breathing in contaminants from dried bird faeces, otherwise known as Pigeon Lung. Some sites are occasionally used by substance abusers for either recreation or disposal, and there may be used and/or infected syringe needles en route, such as those commonly used with heroin.

Furthermore, storm water drains are not designed with human access as their primary use. They can be subject to flash flooding and bad air. There have been a number of deaths in storm water drains, but these are usually during floods, and are normally not Urban Explorers. Most Urban Explorers have a rule: Rain = no drain.

Somehow a few months back I stumbled across this site when searching for cool Japanese blogs: http://www.michaeljohngrist.com/ and have seen some truly amazing things on there. This guy is a photographer and also an "Urban Explorer" and currently lives in Japan. He enters abandoned theme parks, explores forgotten ghost towns and hotels and takes some brilliant photos. From this site I noticed he used the term "Urban Exploration" when talking about his trip to Paris. He said he wanted to enter the underground catacombs housing millions of exhumed skeletons from nearby graveyards.

I recommend following that link to see the pictures too, but if you can't be bothered navigating away, he writes that "Underneath Paris lie hundreds of miles of catacombs, dug over hundreds of years as quarries, tunnels, sewers and interlinked basements. Now for the most part they lie fallow, though never completely blocked-off for fear of sealing some intrepid explorers inside. Huge expanses are merely featureless tunnels of little interest, though nestled within their labyrinthine undulations can be found some fascinating pockets: rooms filled with stunning guerrilla art, bunkers from the World Wars stashed with antique munitions, secret underground cinemas, and of course the Ossuaries. The Ossuaries were filled after the cemeteries in Paris above began to overflow, spreading corruption and disease throughout the city. The first cartloads of exhumed bodies were removed from the nearby ‘Cemetery of the Innocents’ in 1786 and wheeled through the streets at night, flanked by a long procession of priests who blessed and re-consecrated the remains. That move finished 2 years later in 1788, but bodies continued to be relocated there from cemeteries all round Paris up until the mid 19th century."

Amazing. I found this in the "World Ruins" section of his website where he showcases amazing photos from abandonments and wonders around the world. I really think you should check it out. I also learnt about the Global Seed Vault on there. So when the world is ending, i know where I am headed... as long as I have some warm clothes!!

Oh yeah, and I also learnt today that the creepy town from Silent Hill is based on a real town called Centralia in Pennsylvania. It was set up as a coal mining town in the late 1800's, and many families came to live there. In the early 1960's some firemen were hired to "burn off" the landfill (which for some reason contained coal as well), but they didn't extinguish it correctly and eventually the fire burned down into the ground causing a subterranean fire which spread into the coal mines. Now I'm sure you can imagine that coal plus fire equals more fire, which explains why it is still burning today and is predicted to continue burning for the next 250 years. In the 1980's the land started collapsing, and a young boy fell through a sinkhole in his backyard (which turned out to be 4 ft wide and 150ft deep) but was quickly rescued by a family member and somehow survived the fumes. After this, the familes were forced to relocate and slowly abandon the town. Even though it is like a ghost town now except for about 9 people, the Church is still in tact and holds a service every Sunday. How creepy. I am suddenly reminded of the ending of Silent Hill... *shudder*

Road going into Centralia, from here. More amazing shots can be found here.

I asked my brother if he wanted to go with me to the old Werribee Hospital to take photos and he enthusiatically said yes... but then I found out it has been demolished. I remember going there about 5 years ago with some friends. For some reason we were tempting fate by walking along the Werribee River at night and we snuck in through a hole in the fence and were standing there just looking up at it. Two of my friends borrowed my phone which had a light on it and went running off into the dark and tore around inside screaming. I think there was Josh, me, and another girl left standing there... too scared to go in because we knew the guys would jump out at us. So we left. And waited for a long time for the guys to come back. I was in a different place back then - I don't think I even had a camera... actually I might have had a film camera haha. Oh well, I'll just have to research some other places...