Moscow days 1-2
I 1998 i met Dougo, one of the founders of the Cave Clan and was bemused to find him a tall standing man, height around 6'6, kinda big for someone who inhabits structures with occaisionally low ceiling clearance.
Disembarking from our Siberian Air flight from Kiev, passport control was slow but an utter doddle. Exiting to the terminal, we searched around for moscowhite, quickly finding a 6'7 man holding up a paper sign reading so very aptly: 'DRAINERS', with a picture of an RCP beneath. Meeting the Towering Russian i was struck by the similarities.
As it goes, ive become so used to saying 'collector' since ive been in this part of te world, it will be strange going back to yelling 'Big Drains' insead of 'я люблю коллекционер!' .
Moscowhite very kindly lead us through the maze of confusing cyrillic text that is the Moscow Metro to our hostel which i have to say is one of the nicest ive encountered, 'Godzillas' just off цветной бульар, literally a stones throw from the Neglinka collector. In contrast to the broken beds and cold showers of Kiev its very goodah.
We crashed out after dinner then the next day dodged rainstorms, meeting with the_reverse and moscowhite, donning waders (as opposed to the chemical protection suits worn by the Ukrainians) and hi-vis, we descended into the Old Neglinka collector, an abandoned drain which we decided to explore until the flooding in the main system subsided somewhat.
A good chunk of the charm of old Soviet stormwater systems can be found in the ramshackle fashion in which they are constructed. Rudimentary additions fusing beautiful old brickwork with rough unformworked concrete. It was thru these that we headed downstream beneath central Moscow, stopping where a huge Anzac sized brick arch tunnel funnelled a thunderstorms worth of flow into a 12ft diameter RCP. A lid was popped and we peered out to find ourselves just across the road from Red Square, the Kremlin in the background. So very impressive!
Our exit came way upstream, beyond a sidetunnel with an awesome slide, via old redbrick archways and newer concrete rectangles.
Disembarking from our Siberian Air flight from Kiev, passport control was slow but an utter doddle. Exiting to the terminal, we searched around for moscowhite, quickly finding a 6'7 man holding up a paper sign reading so very aptly: 'DRAINERS', with a picture of an RCP beneath. Meeting the Towering Russian i was struck by the similarities.
As it goes, ive become so used to saying 'collector' since ive been in this part of te world, it will be strange going back to yelling 'Big Drains' insead of 'я люблю коллекционер!' .
Moscowhite very kindly lead us through the maze of confusing cyrillic text that is the Moscow Metro to our hostel which i have to say is one of the nicest ive encountered, 'Godzillas' just off цветной бульар, literally a stones throw from the Neglinka collector. In contrast to the broken beds and cold showers of Kiev its very goodah.
We crashed out after dinner then the next day dodged rainstorms, meeting with the_reverse and moscowhite, donning waders (as opposed to the chemical protection suits worn by the Ukrainians) and hi-vis, we descended into the Old Neglinka collector, an abandoned drain which we decided to explore until the flooding in the main system subsided somewhat.
A good chunk of the charm of old Soviet stormwater systems can be found in the ramshackle fashion in which they are constructed. Rudimentary additions fusing beautiful old brickwork with rough unformworked concrete. It was thru these that we headed downstream beneath central Moscow, stopping where a huge Anzac sized brick arch tunnel funnelled a thunderstorms worth of flow into a 12ft diameter RCP. A lid was popped and we peered out to find ourselves just across the road from Red Square, the Kremlin in the background. So very impressive!
Our exit came way upstream, beyond a sidetunnel with an awesome slide, via old redbrick archways and newer concrete rectangles.