Interstate Visitor's Expedition
A Visit by Fil and Oscar from interstate was an opportunity to explore some of UA City's bigger drains.

I turned up at Dougo's place to meet Fil and his brother who were down from Interstate. They were doing Northcote Golf with Big Ears. Presently they returned and we drove off south, eager to take a look at the open day on the new UA City bypass tunnel project.

Arriving in UA City Southside we parked the cars and walked towards the drain location. We didn't find the entrance to the big roadway tunnel but came across a small drainage basin with a pipe leading south towards Bob's Tomb. The well prepared Big Ears had his flashlight on him and wandered down the tunnel to scout it out. He reported that it had a junction in it and it got a bit bigger.

Next we drove into the eastern suburbs, stopping at Dwellers. This large RCP is one very long tunnel. We strode on down it, Doug and Big Ears keeping their feet dry while Fil, Oscar and myself strode on up the center of the tunnel in the water. We had a good time looking at the graffiti and things till we hit the older section of the tunnel where things got a bit slippery.

The tunnel was soon echoing with phrases like F$%! this drain stinks! F$*! thus drain sucks! And then: F@#! this drain is slippery! Big Ears noted that the drain was nowhere near as slippery when he last visited with Prowler. A short time later we were a bit worried to hear a loud couple of thumps as Big Ears slipped over and banged his back and head on the tunnel wall and floor. There was immediate concern from all of us as we were worried he had done himself a major injury. I had visions of carrying him out with a fractured skull.

Big Ears is made of more resilient stuff though and he was wearing a hat so after a short bit of a rest he stood up and much to our amazement was okay. realising how slippery the tunnel was we decided to push on to an exit. I decided to walk down the middle of the tunnel in the water which I found to be the least slippery part of the tunnel.

We came across an exit manhole (or human egress portal) and after I pushed it out of the way, getting tanbark in my hair in the process, we climbed out. We exited to a small yard with a chicken shed and blocks of white painted bluestone in it somewhere in Oakleigh, Melways 69 D-8 and proceeded a long walk back to the cars. We discussed a bit of interstate rivalry about which city has the best drains and which are the best in UA City.

Next we drove to the upstream end of Mini-Tenth to take a look see. There's a new car in it (that makes a total of 3) which still had a light blinking away in it. We strode up the square section of the drain (formally Knighstalker's) and waited while Fil and Oscar took a quick look at Harpie's Pit

After Mini-Tenth we drove to Great Stairway. This tunnel was well worth visiting. We took a good look at the new sections, including the two new grille pits. The first of these was near the lake. When we got into it we realise d there was some one on top of it but that didn't bother us. We soon left it to stride up the new tunnel to the other grille pit. On our way up this we heard a pile of kids screaming abuse at us. When I popped out to look they asked me to throw them up a tennis ball. I asked how much money they would give me for it. To my annoyance the sods threw a water bomb at me!

We exited the tunnel through a manhole in somebody's driveway. It was fun to see the expression on the faces of the family as they looked through their living room window to see five rather dirty and tiered drain explorers pop out of the ground right in front of them. It is also fun to see the double take on the faces of drivers as they drive past you when you are doing this. One moment they are driving along in their boring old lives and the next; "Hey, what the..?"

The last two drains of the night was Sloth's and Dougo's. Sloth's is quite a nice drain to visit, with it's stations and interesting graffiti. Big Ears suggested we do a dinner party in a drain one time and recommended using a station in this drain as it had ready made seating. Dougo's is a nice big tunnel but by the time we got to it I was very tiered. I waited alone in the dark about half way down while the other four walked to the bottom and back.

We drove back to Dougo's at the end of the day. I had to skip the next day but the group were planning to visit GOD, Maze and a few others.

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