Batcave 2.Rating:Updated 12th January 2001

Entrance.

�Holy cow Batman, it looks like a drain for the dynamic duo.�

�Yes Robin, and I drank six glasses of milk to neutralise the poison from the Riddler�s magic drain slime.�

Nana nana nana nana Batman! - Um, wrong Batcave peoples.

While not the most interesting drain in the City, Batcave is certainly the most pretty drain. It certainly is in a nice setting in a park in south the City�s trendy shopping area.

The drain is just north of a swimming pool. In fact from the park we could clearly see the front of the swimming pool as we visited the drain to photograph it. See, that's it up there on the right of the picture past the car-bra clad automobile. It had been raining earlier in the sunny day so the drain so water levels were quite high for this drain, which really wasn�t high at all. Even after the peak water flows at the end December 1999 the water level in the drain wasn�t all that massive.

The entrance of the drain had a small weir across it, which meant that no matter what time we visited it, wet feet would result. The first time we explored the drain was on a hot November day, so it really didn�t matter that our shoes were wet. In fact we decided to save ourselves the hassle of washing up by taking in a swim at the pool right after exploring the drain. It was a bit of creative thinking, or killing two birds with one stone. Wonder what the RSPCA thinks about us now.

As one can see from the picture above the entrance is quite inviting, like Aladdin's cave. Once again however, we advise you not to enter drains, there is no need as this web site details all of the drains in the City. Of all the drains in the City this one is perhaps the most pleasant smelling. This is because about half way along the right pipe is a drain from the swimming pool. The drain now smells of new fresh chlorine. You too can now smell brighter, look shinier and your hair can be more straw-like when you wash in this drain. Of course there�s probably all sorts of nasty germs in the water. The basin in the entrance of the drain is about a foot deep. Spot the frog in the picture below?

We first explored inside this drain on a sunny day and several other times since. Inside the entrance the water is about 30cms deep. You have to stoop a bit unless you are a dwarf. In which case your friends will kick water at you when you try to snigger as they bump their heads. See, there are no advantages to being short. Nobody likes a smartass dwarf. Well they do when he has chocolate, um and when he has chips, and yeah when he has a spare bus ticket. Okay, everyone loves dwarfs okay!

The two square sections join up into some boring round 183 cm (6 foot) pipes. These were like totally cool and radical man - Not! We found out something interesting here. If the water covered bit in the bottom of the drain is grey, it is probably drain slime which has the cohesive properties of tefelon. That is, it�s slippery as hell. Well it makes for an interesting walk and keeps the people who make bandaids in employment.

We were getting jack of the drain when we came to a chamber. And what a chamber! It was cool. Not high, in fact a bit low, but really long and wide. It was great. The chamber spanned both of the pipes so it was really roomy. We found a soft drink bottle in there which we used to play some impromptu soccer. The chamber was well lit from this side tunnel leading to a biggish sky light vent in the upper end. It�s the left side tunnel in the picture below. There was some less than tasteful graf on the drains leading up and out. I think the light in the middle tunnel is the shining ego of a certain drain dwarf, or maybe just his flashlight.

Now as we were exploring this drain we walked up to the next chamber which was like maybe only fifty metres up, not even that. We got there and were looking around, reading the "Where does all the water go to" sticker and getting ready to take a picture. Then, from up the drain this god awful ROAR comes! Shit!! Sounded like a damn wall of water was going to come get us. Memories of Gross Tomb drain came flooding back. Flooding was the worry because we had never heard a sound that loud in a drain before.

Fear and panic hit us. We were scared all right.

" Up on the median!" Soneek yelled. We hopped onto the middle hump in the drain. The bit with yellow paint in the pic above.

" Is it big enough?" Kova asked.

" Back down to the chamber, we can get out the vent."

So we ran back down the slippery drain to the chamber and dived into the side tunnel. We figured we should be okay there. We sat waiting, really expecting a wall of water because the noise was so loud.

We sat there, waiting for impending doom. About a minute passed before we noticed a small rush of water go by. It wasn�t a massive tide. Only maybe ankle deep. We waited a bit longer, before debating weather to go on or to go back. We figured the water wasn�t getting deeper so we figured we may as well go on. We walked up the tunnel to the upper exit where we snapped the classic drain image of the entrance. That on the right there. Good pic. Feel free to copy it for your own non commercial use if you want, just email us first okay. If you want to use any of our pics for commercial use send us money first and we�ll work out a deal okay.

We were curious as to what was making that roaring noise so we evaded the slippery green drain slime in the upper entrance then went back down again. We could hear this road which sounded like a jet engine. It was really loud. We half expected to see it every time we got around a corner. Plus we had nearly flat batteries in our flashlights so we couldn�t see very far. After about 4 slight corners we got to the source of the sound. Water was simply pouring out of a side pipe. It wasn�t all that much either. We had expected to see the side pipe full up of water but in reality it was just barely quarter full.

We took a snap shot then skirted the water on the way back down. It was an okay trip all up. Not too long, discovered an unexpected large chamber and had a massive adrenaline rush. The calf deep water was good oh the hot day too. The grazes from slipping over could have been done without. It was all in all a good day to do drains in. We ended up catching a bus south to Garfio�s place down in the south of the city where we explored WVH and the Blue drain again.

Upstream entrance.

The upstream entrance to the drain has a big enclosed entrance with two round concrete pipes. It is located in the flood basin that forms part of a park south of Manuka shopping center. The day we took this picture it had been raining for three days straight. the City had received a whole month�s average rainfall in just two days. No, we didn�t go into the drain. Weren�t even tempted.

Draining is not recommended for the inexperienced. Exploration of drains can cause head wounds from low ceilings, broken bones through slipping over, embarrassment through obvious demonstrations of your total lack of common sense and other injuries. In addition, your friends will either think that you are totally weird, or in need of a life. We do not encourage you to explore drains. The purpose of this web site is to bring you pictures of what�s in drains so you don�t have to risk your life yourself.

Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

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