Chechura and Chernograskya
Lol, i spoke too soon. The mouse is back... little bugger.
More nummeh Moscow Drainage Reportage:
It was walking from the metro station we had alighted from, to our manhole entrance down into this drain, that i sampled the true flavour that represented Russia's unity with Great Britain, 19 years after the end of the Cold War. While in Moscow i guzzled Burn Energy drink like it was going out of style, having tasted it briefly in Sydney a few years back before it inexplicably disappeared off the shelves there. In Moscow it sells in 500ml matte finish black cans. Just unbelievably classy. So it was for novelty value rather than anything, that as we passed yet another street vendor, i spied Irn Bru in the window and decided to buy some.
IRN BRU... 'Made From Girders'. *Not an actual source of Iron. Produced by Barr Ltd just outside Glasgow, in Scotland... in Russia.
Wow. I had to try, see if it was the same, and if it was different, relish the difference. At 27 roubles, it was great value and with the August sun battering down, id finished it well before we arrived at our entry point. It tasted different sure... more 'irony' to be honest. Lol.
As we were tourists, we had to be a bit more careful than usual popping random lids in this foreign city. No need for barricades, but look like workers and most importantly, dont talk loudly in Australian and American English... cos when did you ever see a Russian utility worker who sounds like Mick Dundee eh?
Moscowhite popped the lid revealing a short shaft, that lacking step irons, was a bit of a gymnasium performance to lower ourselves down and i made the task more difficult for myself by still having the Irn Bru bottle in my hands. But we got in ok, down into Chechura Collector.
A side tunnel to be exact. It soon met the main tunnel however and we headed downstream.
Like Presnya, which we were to see the following day, this large brick pipe was pretty damn old, easily over 100 years. Its flow was quick and clean. No Sewerfresh to be found, but its floor was uneven and quite a chore to navigate, so while were werent sliding all over the place they way you do under London, you had to mind your step, save sprain an ankle as the pipe wove its way under Moscow and to the first oddity, a little side tunnel containing a punnet of very oddly shaped mushrooms.
Moscowhite had mentioned that we were aiming for Chernograskya, a side tunnel, named after the buried river it carried, that met the Chechura tunnel at its downstream end. But he warned that depending on the depth of the water, we may not be able to traverse it without breaching our thigh waders.
As the brick pipe carried on, the flow slowed, and got deeper, the brickwork giving way to concrete and water that almost breached our waders.
The pipework abruptly morphed to a wider rectangle, strewn with debris in the true style of river tunnels that carries enough water during latent weather to drag along then unceremoniously dump large chunks of debris. It was a game of Tetris trying to avoid the really deep sections, that eventually ended as the floor evened out beneath what seemed to be a snow dump.
Ahead we could make out the dim illumination coming in from the drains outfall into the river but with the water too deep, we instead turned into Chernograskya.
Smaller but just as debris strewn, this older tunnel was even more fun. It had the look of a tunnel that had been fucked with one too many times, huge potholes in the floor, odd additions, and many changes in shape.
The true test of whether we would be able to continue came at a section where a water main pipe crossed the tunnel. The water beneath the pipe was deep, so as to allow it to pass beneath unhindered. Only standing in pre chosen spots saw us remain unbreached, as we then climbed up over the pipe.
From here, the tunnel experienced devastating shrinkage and to be honest i started to think we were going this way simply to find an exit.
Reverse was up in front and stopped briefly when the pipe shrank to 4ft. Moscowhite told us to continue however, despite his own chagrin at being 6'6ft in such a small space. So on we went and suddenly things got bigger... and to me, very familiar! We emerged in a very very classy stone tunnel, kinda oval/lozenge, about 7-8ft in height.
This was a section of tunnel i had seen on the blogs of Diggers who use Livejournal but that had remained rather mysterious. All of a sudden our reason for being here was obvious. What a wonderful section, definitely my favourite and knowing what was ahead, i powered on to the little stone staircase that goes round a slight bend, before the tunnel shrinks for good.
Sections like this make long stoops all worthwhile. They also sing the praises of those waterways that are engulfed beneath the ground in stages, allowing for construction eccentricities like this, rather than monotonous uniformity.
While photographing the staircase, the water coming down it increased quite suddenly, prompting a mild reaction of alarm from the lot of us, but it soon abated and we exited via nearby manhole shaft, to whines from Quantum X that there was a sanitary connection and that he'd nearly gotten a pink condom in the face on his way up.
More nummeh Moscow Drainage Reportage:
It was walking from the metro station we had alighted from, to our manhole entrance down into this drain, that i sampled the true flavour that represented Russia's unity with Great Britain, 19 years after the end of the Cold War. While in Moscow i guzzled Burn Energy drink like it was going out of style, having tasted it briefly in Sydney a few years back before it inexplicably disappeared off the shelves there. In Moscow it sells in 500ml matte finish black cans. Just unbelievably classy. So it was for novelty value rather than anything, that as we passed yet another street vendor, i spied Irn Bru in the window and decided to buy some.
IRN BRU... 'Made From Girders'. *Not an actual source of Iron. Produced by Barr Ltd just outside Glasgow, in Scotland... in Russia.
Wow. I had to try, see if it was the same, and if it was different, relish the difference. At 27 roubles, it was great value and with the August sun battering down, id finished it well before we arrived at our entry point. It tasted different sure... more 'irony' to be honest. Lol.
As we were tourists, we had to be a bit more careful than usual popping random lids in this foreign city. No need for barricades, but look like workers and most importantly, dont talk loudly in Australian and American English... cos when did you ever see a Russian utility worker who sounds like Mick Dundee eh?
Moscowhite popped the lid revealing a short shaft, that lacking step irons, was a bit of a gymnasium performance to lower ourselves down and i made the task more difficult for myself by still having the Irn Bru bottle in my hands. But we got in ok, down into Chechura Collector.
A side tunnel to be exact. It soon met the main tunnel however and we headed downstream.
Like Presnya, which we were to see the following day, this large brick pipe was pretty damn old, easily over 100 years. Its flow was quick and clean. No Sewerfresh to be found, but its floor was uneven and quite a chore to navigate, so while were werent sliding all over the place they way you do under London, you had to mind your step, save sprain an ankle as the pipe wove its way under Moscow and to the first oddity, a little side tunnel containing a punnet of very oddly shaped mushrooms.
Moscowhite had mentioned that we were aiming for Chernograskya, a side tunnel, named after the buried river it carried, that met the Chechura tunnel at its downstream end. But he warned that depending on the depth of the water, we may not be able to traverse it without breaching our thigh waders.
As the brick pipe carried on, the flow slowed, and got deeper, the brickwork giving way to concrete and water that almost breached our waders.
The pipework abruptly morphed to a wider rectangle, strewn with debris in the true style of river tunnels that carries enough water during latent weather to drag along then unceremoniously dump large chunks of debris. It was a game of Tetris trying to avoid the really deep sections, that eventually ended as the floor evened out beneath what seemed to be a snow dump.
Ahead we could make out the dim illumination coming in from the drains outfall into the river but with the water too deep, we instead turned into Chernograskya.
Smaller but just as debris strewn, this older tunnel was even more fun. It had the look of a tunnel that had been fucked with one too many times, huge potholes in the floor, odd additions, and many changes in shape.
The true test of whether we would be able to continue came at a section where a water main pipe crossed the tunnel. The water beneath the pipe was deep, so as to allow it to pass beneath unhindered. Only standing in pre chosen spots saw us remain unbreached, as we then climbed up over the pipe.
From here, the tunnel experienced devastating shrinkage and to be honest i started to think we were going this way simply to find an exit.
Reverse was up in front and stopped briefly when the pipe shrank to 4ft. Moscowhite told us to continue however, despite his own chagrin at being 6'6ft in such a small space. So on we went and suddenly things got bigger... and to me, very familiar! We emerged in a very very classy stone tunnel, kinda oval/lozenge, about 7-8ft in height.
This was a section of tunnel i had seen on the blogs of Diggers who use Livejournal but that had remained rather mysterious. All of a sudden our reason for being here was obvious. What a wonderful section, definitely my favourite and knowing what was ahead, i powered on to the little stone staircase that goes round a slight bend, before the tunnel shrinks for good.
Sections like this make long stoops all worthwhile. They also sing the praises of those waterways that are engulfed beneath the ground in stages, allowing for construction eccentricities like this, rather than monotonous uniformity.
While photographing the staircase, the water coming down it increased quite suddenly, prompting a mild reaction of alarm from the lot of us, but it soon abated and we exited via nearby manhole shaft, to whines from Quantum X that there was a sanitary connection and that he'd nearly gotten a pink condom in the face on his way up.
