St00p Sc00p S00p. The Final Visit.
To be fair with ya, Ive got abit of a soft spot for this culvert...
As hard as it is, and how many times Ive got soaked, injured or both, I still find myself wanting to come back, only being beaten by the stoop and horrible soop water...
Today I wanted to visit this culvert the final time, to finally get as far as possible before either a wader failure or deep silt (p.s there was both!)
This is a collection of (phone, what a sin..) photos from April/June 2023. MAYBE Ill return with a camera, but I needed to post my progress
The Explores
April 13th:
This day was a visit to check out this scoop that I hadnt peaked over the first times I went, I always avoided it for some reason..
Just after the very low down concrete section (That I believe goes under Upwell Street):
You meet with the "Scoop"
Which is essentially an overflow for the Bagley Dike into Gigatron in high flow.
This was ALOT deeper than I had expected, and I am still baffled that @jezzyboo managed to get down/up that penstock without dropping down.
This photo is very decieving as the pipe at the bottom is about 5ft high, so thats almost a 10ft+ drop down into the scoop.
The pipe takes you into a dropshaft, if you climb down to the invert level and follow the overflow pipe downstream it takes you to the infamous Hawke Street Drop Shaft!
June 29th
Todays mission was to get as far as possible before either a wader fail or deep silt.
P.S there was both!
Anyone order a cider strongbow?
Anyone shit themself?
(I would in this drain..)
Lets start from the S00p Falls
Certainly one of my favourite features in a drain..
Past the falls you follow a 5ft blue brick pipe round a corner until it switches to red brick arch with a flat walkway:
Following on down we come to a split, the left side FULL of debris as far as I could see..
Natural light down the right made for some questionable photos..
Standing in a tunnel in pitch black is not fun, but oh well lets carry on.
Along the way there were countless egg-shaped side pipes, I do love this old style!
This brick arch section seemed to drag on forever..
Noticing rags hanging from the roof, and chambers being full of debris, the thought of it raining while I was down here was haunting me!
Eventually however, the split from earlier meets up through a stangnant concrete pipe, deep silt..
Split joining back:
Going through this turned to be a nightmare so I turned back not even 20 meters in..
We are now in a stoopy concrete pipe. I do like this older type of RCP !
The water slowly got deeper and deeper until I was almost knee deep.. (it also reeked in here)
Until finally..
Another split..
Left side (Stagnant shitty deep water with a plastic side pipe pissing out orange water)
Right side (more homely, but still deep):
The LHS looked stagnant and silty, so I carried on down the RHS..
That was until BOOM, hip deep all of a sudden! (I shouldn't be doing this shit at such a young age, LOL!)
Wet and moody I decided this was my turn back point..
I doubt I will EVER get this far again..
With brew on mind I made it back to the infall and dried off abit before heading home..
I do love this culvert, but I doubt ill ever return...
(Drop shaft soon)
Peace out!
sum photos/videos: stoop scoop soop
To be fair with ya, Ive got abit of a soft spot for this culvert...
As hard as it is, and how many times Ive got soaked, injured or both, I still find myself wanting to come back, only being beaten by the stoop and horrible soop water...
Today I wanted to visit this culvert the final time, to finally get as far as possible before either a wader failure or deep silt (p.s there was both!)
This is a collection of (phone, what a sin..) photos from April/June 2023. MAYBE Ill return with a camera, but I needed to post my progress
The Explores
April 13th:
This day was a visit to check out this scoop that I hadnt peaked over the first times I went, I always avoided it for some reason..
Just after the very low down concrete section (That I believe goes under Upwell Street):
You meet with the "Scoop"
Which is essentially an overflow for the Bagley Dike into Gigatron in high flow.
This was ALOT deeper than I had expected, and I am still baffled that @jezzyboo managed to get down/up that penstock without dropping down.
This photo is very decieving as the pipe at the bottom is about 5ft high, so thats almost a 10ft+ drop down into the scoop.
The pipe takes you into a dropshaft, if you climb down to the invert level and follow the overflow pipe downstream it takes you to the infamous Hawke Street Drop Shaft!
June 29th
Todays mission was to get as far as possible before either a wader fail or deep silt.
P.S there was both!
Anyone order a cider strongbow?
Anyone shit themself?
(I would in this drain..)
Lets start from the S00p Falls
Certainly one of my favourite features in a drain..
Past the falls you follow a 5ft blue brick pipe round a corner until it switches to red brick arch with a flat walkway:
Following on down we come to a split, the left side FULL of debris as far as I could see..
Natural light down the right made for some questionable photos..
Standing in a tunnel in pitch black is not fun, but oh well lets carry on.
Along the way there were countless egg-shaped side pipes, I do love this old style!
This brick arch section seemed to drag on forever..
Noticing rags hanging from the roof, and chambers being full of debris, the thought of it raining while I was down here was haunting me!
Eventually however, the split from earlier meets up through a stangnant concrete pipe, deep silt..
Split joining back:
Going through this turned to be a nightmare so I turned back not even 20 meters in..
We are now in a stoopy concrete pipe. I do like this older type of RCP !
The water slowly got deeper and deeper until I was almost knee deep.. (it also reeked in here)
Until finally..
Another split..
Left side (Stagnant shitty deep water with a plastic side pipe pissing out orange water)
Right side (more homely, but still deep):
The LHS looked stagnant and silty, so I carried on down the RHS..
That was until BOOM, hip deep all of a sudden! (I shouldn't be doing this shit at such a young age, LOL!)
Wet and moody I decided this was my turn back point..
I doubt I will EVER get this far again..
With brew on mind I made it back to the infall and dried off abit before heading home..
I do love this culvert, but I doubt ill ever return...
(Drop shaft soon
)Peace out!
sum photos/videos: stoop scoop soop
Last edited:
cheers bro 
