Now ye're talking - to an Urban Explorer

Deleted User wrote: »

Have you explored any abandoned Railway Bridges / Viaducts? Do you always heed "KEEP AWAY" signs?

I explored the 'Red Iron' railway bridge near Waterford city a good few years ago.

I focus more on building interiors rather than civil engineered structures, so I’ve not really looked at any railway bridges, etc.

“Keep Away” signs are like in invitation to me, I always wonder what is beyond that sign, and quite often go have a look.

Business Cat wrote: »

Have you ever found

- money
- a dead body
- a meth lab / grow house / criminal enterprise
- anything valuable

If you did find any of the above, what did / would you do?

Do you ever take souvenirs?

Do you make multiple visits to the same site or is it a case of one and done?

Whats the most jaw dropping place you've discovered?

Ever had any near death experiences while exploring?

Money – Yes. But not much.

Dead Body – No!

Meth lab / grow house – We have found evidence of a grow in one place, but even that had been abandoned by the time we got there!

Anything valuable – Yes, quite a lot. Some of the places we visit would be considered disused, rather than abandoned I guess. Country houses are a good example of this, they are often no longer lived in, but oil paintings, antique furniture and ornaments often still remain.

We left all of the above have been in place. I refrain from posting such places on the Internet until I know the valuable items are no longer there or have been secured, as I don’t want to advertise such items to thieves.

Yep, if I’m honest I have taken the odd souvenir, but never anything of value or something that would be missed.

As much as possible I try to stick to one visit per location, however I want to ensure the reports on my website are as thorough as possible, so sometimes it takes more than one visit if I miss something, or get rumbled during a visit.

The most jaw dropping…. That’s a hard one to answer as places are stunning in different ways. I love industrial locations, and there’s one place in particular that stands out in my memories. It’s called Diesel Centrale, it’s a vintage diesel-fired power station in Austria, and is extremely well preserved.

I’ve not had any near death experiences.

theemigrant wrote: »

Have you ever been arrested for trespass?

Yep, in Germany. In the UK trespass is not a criminal offence, so the police can only ask us to leave. If we were to refuse it would become aggravated trespass, for which they could arrest us for. We have encountered the police a few times but we always comply with their requests and have never been arrested in the UK. In Germany things are a bit different, and we received fines for being found in an abandoned hospital.

BarryD2 wrote: »

Would you break a window or door to gain entry? Or do you only enter if it's possible to leave/ enter without causing damage. Sometimes poke around old abandoned rural houses myself, quite poignant at times.

How do you assess potential rotting floorboards, decaying staircases?

No, we never break anything to get in. Sometimes it’s annoying, but other times we can be very creative to find ways in - via basements, from the roof, or any manner of ways that don’t involve causing damage. That is half the fun really and can be very rewarding when we manage it in the end.

Often, people who are new to the hobby will start off exploring long-abandoned and decaying locations where rotting floorboards are a problem. I vividly remember the feeling or horror when my foot went through a floorboard once not long after I started exploring, but luckily that is the only experience like that I’ve had. It’s not really a problem for us now as we rarely visit places that are that far gone.

Standman wrote: »

Wow... can you elaborate on this a bit? What have you found?

In a few old asylums we have found machines for electric shock treatment, old medical tools such as bone saws and evidence of frontal lobotomies. We have found chairs and beds in old hospitals with arm and leg restraints, either for use while performing operations or for restraining patients for long periods while on wards. One location we visited in Belgium had a selection of babies and foetuses preserved in formaldehyde filled jars, each one featuring a different deformity. Some of the jars were not fully sealed, allowing the formaldehyde to dry out leaving rotted human remains behind.

Tr_18 wrote: »

I've been into the Odlums building in Cork part way through the demolition and a building site in Dublin and have always wanted to explore more locations.

If security are suspicious and call out, do you present yourself or try to hide?

How do you deal with aggravated property owners/security when found?

Do you try to keep your distance until the Garda arrive of run away if you have the opportunity?

How we respond to security depends on the situation. If we can hide and get away without actually encountering security, we will. However if we are face to face with them, we’ll usually just give ourselves up as it’s easier for everyone and instils trust that we are not there for malicious purposes.

Aggravated owners are our biggest fear. A good security firm will not pose a threat to our safety, but you cannot predict what a private owner might do – they will feel threatened and will likely be annoyed so we try to escape them whenever possible! If we can’t get away, talking, remaining calm and being polite goes a long way to diffuse the situation, and people usually relax a bit when they realise we are not a threat to them.

miamee wrote: »

Great photos on your site! How do you decide where to visit? You seem to have been to quite a few places, is there some sort of network that you'd find out from local urban explorers about good places to check out and return the favour if they were in your area? Or do you have to do your own research and pick a few potential sites to visit when abroad?

There is a community of likeminded people based around a few forums, and we do share places that we have discovered. However, there are quite a few urban exploring websites and I don’t want to be posting up the same places as all the others, so almost all the locations on there are ones we have found ourselves through research. I always have a bit of a list of potential sites waiting to be checked out, but if we discover somewhere that looks like it has more potential for photo opportunities we’ll often head straight there that weekend.

crustybla wrote: »

Wow, your site is amazing, photos are fab! Those asylums though, hellish places. You must shudder sometimes. Have you ever been in a place and couldn't wait to get out?

Thanks.
One or two, but never due to the feeling I get from things that happened there in the past. I find it intriguing discovering hints of the things that took place, especially in the old asylums, but it never makes me feel uneasy about being there myself. Things that might make me want to leave are usually physical things like the presence of a lot of asbestos or dangerous conditions.

E mac wrote: »

Most surprising building you have discovered ?

miamee wrote: »

What's the most unexpected place you've explored?

What's the most surprising thing that you've discovered?

What do your friends and family think of your exploring, do they ever want to come with you?

Most unexpected I would say was an old slate mine in Wales which has formed a huge underground cavern with a lake in the bottom. At one end, there’s a small hole to the surface allowing light to shine in, and below the hole was a mountain of old cars which had been dumped through the hole in the 70s or 80s.

Most surprising…. A French naval ship that still had missiles and torpedoes on board. It had been retired from service and parked up in a bay along the French coast, so we boarded using a dinghy, and discovered the full array or armament still on board.

My friends and family are always interested in where I’ve been, but not many of them ever want to come on a trip!

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Very interesting topic! Thanks for doing this AMA.

What's the diciest situation you've had to talk yourself out of?

How did you find out about this community initially? And what initially captured your interest?

What are the most exotic places on your list to be seen?

The diciest situation we’ve had to talk ourselves out of…. Getting caught inside a live power station at a chemical works! It didn’t appear to be in use from a distance, so we made our way through the chemical works and got to the power station surprisingly easily, and realised it wasn’t quite as disused as we thought. It was very much in use, in fact! So, you know, we went inside anyway and pretty quickly got spotted! The police were called, and an investigation by special branch ensued. We managed to explain our way out of it without being arrested and we were even given a lift back to our car!

I had been interested in photography before I discovered urban exploring, and was quite interested in a photography technique called light painting, whereby lights are moved around in front of the camera during a long exposure in order to build up a scene in the photo that doesn’t exist in real life. It’s a bit weird, really, but I found that abandoned buildings created an ideal backdrop. Through trying to find more abandoned buildings I stumbled upon the urban exploring community and it kind of took over my life from that point!

I have a second trip to Chernobyl planned, this time to see inside the new safe confinement they have built over the nuclear plants old crumbling sarcophagus, so that should be interesting. I don’t usually have much on my list that’s particularly exotic because I go visit soon after finding places. Although, there are some abandoned space shuttles in Kazakhstan that I wouldn’t mind seeing…

face1990 wrote: »

Have you ever visited a location with the permission of the owners?

Yes, one or two and I always state that we got permission on my website. Sometimes it’s not possible to enter a building but one way or another get talking to the owners and they allow us inside. The ex-headquarters of Rosemary Conley (she made health and fitness videos in the 90s) set in a huge country house is one such place, we got talking to the groundskeeper who allowed us to go inside and take photos.

Over on the continent, and e specially in Eastern European countries it’s commonplace for owners to charge people to enter and take photos, but this isn’t a practice I’m keen on as I don’t consider it to be proper urban exploring, I would class it more as a museum.