An interesting experience

Firstly, allow me to apologise for anyone expecting high quality pictures on this thread, due to circumstances this is not the case.

However yesterday evening I had a rather interesting experience I would like to share with those of you with an interest.

I have been working in Dover Harbour and managed to get permission to enter some of the tunnels in the white cliffs, being a caver for many years I cannot resist exploring old tunnels and I had heard rumours of world war two oil tanks being hidden away inside the chalk cliffs.

So, last night having got hold of a key, we entered by way of the locked door of cave number 24.

[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/door.jpg[/IMG]


Sadly I had not taken any of my flash guns with me to Dover, but still took my K20d. I had to make do with the onboard flash. I could not use the bulb setting as I had forgotten my remote and i had no tripod. So I had to improvise, but the shots are rather grainy and a little out of focus in places.

So, under torchlight we climbed a few hundred steps, the tunnel continued for about 200 meters to a dead end, but there were several blind passages off to the right which ended in a blank wall with 4 large pipes coming out of them, most blanked off but one was open. We threw a steel bolt into the pipe..... the echo that bounced back at us was like something out of a horror movie and lasted for minutes. Peering through we could see a large chamber and a light at the end.

There was only one thing for it, crawl through the pipe and investigate.


[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/pipe.jpg[/IMG]


It was quite a squeeze, but the chamber that greeted us on the other side was quite amazing. This is just one of the WWII oil tanks, there are at least 5 of them.

[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/tank.jpg[/IMG]

This image was taken using just the ambient light from the far end and a little light painting with a small torch and an exposure of 30 seconds i think.

The passage is about 10 metres wide by 187 long and 10 to 12 high, the photograph doesn't do our feeling justice.

As I photographed there were some strange red flashes at the far end followed by a series of bangs and we could see smoke. With some trepidation we started towards the far end and the source of the bangs.
This turned out to be a live electric cable which had been frayed and had burnt in two and was occasianally arcing in the pool of diesel lying on the floor. We passed by it and pulled it out of the diesel.

At the far end the tank wall had been breached by jackhammer years ago and a few electric lights had been burning unchecked for a very long time.

In the tunnel at this end there were a few interesting artefacts.

[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/winch.jpg[/IMG]




[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/sign.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f396/Hannabella/endroom.jpg[/IMG]

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we did.

Steve

Very impressive! I always marvel at the other world that exists under our feet

Are you a member of this forum by any chance? They have an underground section and would probably love these photos.

Hefty
Thanks, no I am not aware of that site, I will take a look and maybe post them.

Steve

Fascinating stuff, well done

We had a talk on Urban Exploration last week at ADAPS. All very exciting stuff, but not as exciting as hidden tunnels beyond locked doors!

Fantastic!

Fascinating! We've visited Dover Castle many times (being EH members).
Thanks for sharing!
Matt

Hmmmm I wonder if the oil tanks had anything to do with anti invasion plans during WW11?
Britain had successly tested a method of releasing oil under water off the coast and setting it on fire. They had tested it several times prior to the battle of Britain.
It was to prevent landing barges from reaching the coast.

A info source. Guns, oil, and poison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_anti-invasion_preparations_of_World_War_II#Guns.2C_petroleum_and_poison

It must have been an interesting experience. Thanks for taking us on the tour. Enjoyed it very much

Fascinating stuff. Thank you very much for sharing the story.

Nice one Steve, very interesting, well done.

Thanks all for the comments, it was indeed interesting

very nice & interesting ur post

Thanks for taking the time to post them here.
superb shots with very good description.
regards

Vikram

I think I would have been more interested in the Graffiti is that something derogatory about Mussolini on the right of the third pic?

I did Dover Castle many years ago when I was also a member of EH. we learned of the tunnels underneath the cliffs but never imagined there was anything like this.

PS; is that you crawling through the pipe? IMHO you need your bumps feeling!

No thats me behind the camera lol, I am much larger than the guy in the picture, but I still squeezed through the pipe