For those of you that know all about transporter bridges read on but for those of you that don’t, wikipeadia is your friend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transporter_bridge

In 2009 I had my first encounter with a Transporter bridge, I had  go to stay with my (at the time) new friend Lucy, after some food, conversation turned to what exploring could be had. She mentioned a Transporter bridge near by that she had climbed many times before. Being scared of heights I wasn’t very keen on the idea! Not wanting to let the ‘Ladiezz’ down and always liking a challenge I agreed to the task! After a short drive and more of my “I don’t think I want to do this” and a small bit of climbing I crawled up the last part of the stairs to the top. As Lucy bounded about I shakily took some (bad) pictures before unfurling a pirate flag and setting off back down the structure….

My first experience with a transporter bridge had scared the crap but of me but it was exhilarating, id climbed my first bridge! After that I put the climb to the back of my mind but the bug for bridges had been caught…

 Roll on to the beginning of 2011 and eotech had moved to Newport  for a short time, and had climbed the Newport transporter bridge. After telling  me how easy it really was, the task had to be undertaken.
So after a few days and a curious encounter with a base jumper Bordello and Total in tow we were rigging up at the foot of the bridge. The climb was relatively easy just  requiring faith, a firm grip and a liberal covering of anti-vandal grease. We were soon on our way upwards…

 ….Once the lights were off and we were satisfied with our photos from the top deck there was only one thing left to do, climb to the very top of  the towers to admire the view and of course get a group shot and get back to the ground!

...And then there was just one left in the Uk left unclimbed and of  course to go back to Teesside to get
some decent photos! With a party and exhibition in Hartlepool and a friend over from  Holland we thought
showing him up the bridge was the best way to show him what England is really like…

…Now that last dam bridge!
 
We had been warned about the state of the Warrington transporter bridge before we set off on our first reccy, but upon inspection we realised weren’t quite prepared for the state of disrepair, its not just bad, its absolutely diabolical. Im honestly surprised that it hasn’t been demolished or fallen down almost entirely.  As we were obviously unprepared it was left for another day.  I was so close to the hat-trick and shortly after my plan was thwarted by a broken wrist…

...But not for long, I was back! After many attempts to climb to the  structure via rope we abandoned this idea and simply walked onto the site of the live chemical works surrounding the bridge and up! Showering Eotech with rust as we ascended it was the shortest climb of the 3 bridges but it felt like a grand achievement to have finally stood on top of all 3… only another 5 spread around the world to go now!

To be continued....

So another night out  was organised, since Thewinchester accidentally
sourced the access to the legendary junction ORLY on our last trip we had vowed to
go back to explore some of the rest of that particular system. Meeting winch, Marc,

 ....While i hung back to take pictures of  London’s longest drain ladder the otheres decended.
A short while later i joined the others at the bottom and we began to
walk down stream, with sporadic squawks, screams, French and train horn sound
effects we talked the same old talk of ethics and politics surrounding exploring
various parts of the modern worlds infrastructure. Shortly after admiring the
local water boards efforts of patching up part of the drain, we noticed a very
orange light, that really really looked like some sort of cast from a street
light, being the ever nosey and intrepid explorers we all were we began the
leisurely walk towards said light,  continuing with the sound  effects....

 ....At roughly 200 yards from this light and in deepening water,
Marc spotted the cause for such a curious sight in a drain... London’s finest sewer
flushers who, upon hearing our sound track were stepping down from their
platform and promptly started shouting at us. As shouts were being throw back and
forth in a mixture of French,  English and seagull a quick turn the
fuck around and GTFO. What ensued was a about an hour of running and walking
back up the pipe with nckt's wellies filling with fresh #sewerage  and
everyone getting a nice coating  ( Drainor Tip no.1 never go draining with your wallet in your back pocket) 

This being the only picture from our underground adventure…

…After checking every manhole shaft for a glimpse  of the ever elusive easy lift
on our way back up to ORLY, we decided it would be  a good idea not to
exit at the same point we had entered so onwards we went in yet more deepening water,
which was filled with floaters of a different kind, rats.  Several hundred meters of
pipe was filled with mid to high calve deep water with an extremely high
concentration on the Bloaters #kingratty. The decision was made to turn back due to
stirring up to much sediment and the lack of exit points, so the trudge back to
our starting point began…

 …when we had finally exited we sat around splattered in mud and fresh in a church car park
before making our way to the cars to watch Marc try and slice Brad open with only the aid of his cars sunroof... 

...Onto the next event of the evening or shall I say... the next 5 days of drain blight. #snappled.