So, various friends and I have been discussing the notion of Urban Exploration. This is a fancy-pants term for, like, nosing around areas which are off-limits to the general public. My various personality-units all think this sounds like a plan – Nerd-JSR is already making lists of the equipment required, Evil-JSR likes it cos NO-ONE FUCKING TELLS ME WHERE I CAN AND CANNOT GO an Monkey-Mind-JSR likes it because it’ll involve some thought about how best to gain access to the target, dodge security, etc.
Since we’re only discussing accessing and nosing around the areas in question, and taking pictures, the worst possible outcome would be a breaking and entering charge (easily settleable down to tresspass, or simply paid off to the target to make go away) and frankly, even that is unlikely, if they’re semi-public areas that we’re simply not meant to be accessing. I mean, we’re talking the secret bits of abandoned-railways-stations/asylums/etc here, not people’s houses.
So, anyway, some feedback from the livejournal community is welcome on the following important nerd subject:
What stuff should we take that’ll be useful for this sort of thing? Bearing in mind that we may be in physically nasty circumstances, like in half-demolished buildings, semi-flooded tunnels, slowly-closing-garbage-pits, etc.
So, far, my list is as follows:
Flexible, warm, but rugged clothing (black).
Possibly Tabi Boots (for chain link fences, etc)
2-way radios (possibly also police scanner)
Small, bright flashlight – adjustable beam
Digital Camera (w GPRS kit for immediate updating)
GPS rig
Any thoughts on this are welcome.
September 9, 2003 at 3:06 am
gloves
first aid kit
September 9, 2003 at 6:42 am
Rope? You never know.
I was always upset that I never got to infiltrate the abandoned sugar plant with some of my friends when I was in High School. I just lived in the wrong part of town to be able to sneak out with them. Why do I always wear black clothing? It’s not because I’m the sloppiest coffee drinker in the western world. Well, yeah, it is… but I keep thinking, you never know when you’ll want to infiltrate a sugar plant. Note the stealth shoes…
I DID get to go on the one to the abandoned loony bin (different friends), but the building itself was not so exciting (it looked like a school). The only thing that made it creepy in the least was the flock of tripping squatters. The night after we stayed there, the police raided the thing. Ho ho!
September 9, 2003 at 6:50 am
I wanna go! Keen x 10000000!d
September 9, 2003 at 6:56 am
My suggestion? Ask . He knows a considerable amount about that sort of thing, and where to go for more information.
September 9, 2003 at 7:57 pm
This may take all the fun out of it, but… couldn’t you just go once, have a look to see what you’ll need, and then come back the next day?
September 9, 2003 at 10:14 pm
I’m totally into it dude. I have a few potential targets in mind already.
You want heavy duty backpacks that can handle being snagged on barb-wire and abseiling gear so that you can take on old abandoned lift shafts and cool shit like that (secret agent man).
Next time you come around remind me to take you into the roof & lift electronics room at my office, just the choicest old tech.