Rubix Drain (South Western Storm Relief) - Explored with ConcreteJungle.
Our trip down Rubix involved quite a walk down a mostly red brick tunnel.
Entering the system in Tulse Hill through a lid I found nearly 3 years ago but only got round to using recently was initially a very straightforward affair. However, no sooner had we descended the ladder into the 6ft tunnel, were we greeted by not a rat, but a squirrel sitting at the bottom of the manhole shaft!
How it had got down there was anyone's guess, but ConcreteJungle decided to do the honourable thing of releasing it back above ground. As he went to pick it up it jumped onto me and ran all over me trying to escape his grasp. Fortunately he managed to get hold of it and carefully carried it up the ladder before letting it out above ground.
With a good deed done, we began to proceed down the drain but were almost immediately confronted with yet another even stranger surprise: There was a sorry looking canary standing on the floor of the drain just out of the very minimal flow. What the hell this was doing down here was even more bizarre but ConcreteJungle rescued this poor fellow too. I can just imagine someone up top seeing a lid lift up from below and a squirrel jump out then a couple of minutes later the lid lifts again and a canary flies out!
Anyhow after about 1km, what I assume is the Effra Sewer makes an appearance in an overflow chamber. (Looking forward to seeing your shots of this one CJ!) Our journey continues for some time until we got to this section where the Balham Sewer passes above the storm relief and can overflow when necessary via the smaller tunnels at each side of the relief tunnel.
Only a short distance downstream is this spectacular section where the tunnel more than doubles in diameter from 7ft to 16ft whilst at the same time features two overflows from what appears to be the Southern High Level sewer.
On the penultimate shot you can just make out a 'close combat sock' near the centre of the image filled with, well who knows, hanging from the jamrag laden walkway!
We didn't go much beyond this point as time was ticking and we had something else to check out in the local area but also as the air became very still further downstream and didn't seem that great on this occasion. Might have to pay this a return visit, but that could take some time.
