Down t' Pit
Jarkman, HiRez and I went for a walk to another abandoned coal mine, above Abersychan in the South Wales valleys.
Google maps
How Grey Was My Valley
Frosty water on the steep valley sides, looking East. Probably scramble bike trails. Many of the small hills around here are coal spoil tips. Nothing much grows on them, except motorbikes.
Above the pit was a dam and reservoir, although the dam had been deliberately breached when the mine closed. Spotting this dam from aerial photos was what had brought us here in the first place.
The three large buttresses to the right are around the original outlet sluice. To the left of the breach is a small tunnel that used to be the overspill.
Google maps
The dam is the dark wall running North-South. The small circles to the West of the dam are sheep feeders.
Subterranean sheepsick blues
There was a tunnel
Full of Orcs
So I went on a Quest into it.
It's funny how there's never any shortage of LARPers or role-players, but when it comes to shambliing down a low tunnel full of bones, no-one else wants to come along...
Bones
Lots of bones
Bones everywhere
I wondered what had ripped the throat out of this sheep. But not very hard.
I wasn't unhappy to get out of there.
The Helicopters Are Still Burning
Ballard fanboy discovers an abandoned reservoir
This is just North of the pit buildings - you can see it on the map.
Johnny HiRez
Johnny LoRez
Just your average broken sunglasses in an abandoned swimming pool shot.
All photographs © Dingbat or Jarkman