Expedition logbook
January - June 1999

The links in this old document won't work anymore.

Saturday 26 June 1999

INTRODUCTION - I've been contacted by the commercial TV station SBS6 to take part in the program 'Explosief'. It's a reality-TV programme with exploding cars, unopened parachutes, broken bungee-cords and more ugly happenings. But they also have a more normal section on Dutch 'spectacular' activities and I will get a 5-minute slot in it.

On Saturday 26/6/99 a small van with Olaf the producer and Jack the cameraman stopped at my door and picked me and Walter up. I took them through some urban activities and I think they enjoyed it.

HOW I STARTED - Took them to a 13 story appartment building near my house to show them the Rotterdam skyline. I started by eploring these buildings because I wanted to know: "How far can you look". Explained to them how to behave while infiltrating. But i'ts difficult to be inconspicuous with a two-person camera-team. On the other hand a professional TV-camera is a great credibility prop. No one bothered us. The camera man said that he also owned a decoy-camera, hollow on the inside, which helped him get into inaccesible places.

METRO AND TRAIN TUNNELS - At the Blaak-train station I explained three levels of urban adventure.

1. Easily doable: I will climb the arch above the station one day and I have contacted several Rotterdam artists if they could make an object that I would hang from the arch.
2. Doable with a lot of preparation: I may go inside the metro tunnels. Technically it's possible but I don't want to get caught.
3. Not doable: The train tunnel: too many camera's, 24h/day traffic.

But the presence of the camera team changed all that. When these guys said "ok let's go inside" to my own amazement I walked 60 feet behind the "mortal danger, do not enter" sign of the train tunnel. In full view of the security camera's! Immediately a phone on one of the pillars started ringing, so we must have been seen! I couldn't pick up the phone because it's protective case was locked. Now, afterwards, I'm worried what could happen to me if this scene is shown on TV in a programme with a mean viewer count of 500.000? In any case I'll ask them not to show my full name on TV.

After filming in the metro a guard came up to us and told us we were not allowed to film there. But we were ready at that time and were walking out the stairs. I asked "Should we stop filming here?" but he said "No, this part is the train-company part, here you can do what you like, it's not my business ...." So there seems to be an invisible demarcation line in the station.

ABANDONED BUILDINGS - We had permission to film in the deserted Nestle factory but we pretended to climb over a barbed-wire / spike fence over the water. It was quite easy, I started by putting slings and protection on the fence but I could climb it without any tools at all. I got an ugly deep scratch on my chest from one of the spikes.

Then while going down a steep quay I stepped on some plants and slipped all the way down to the water on my bum. Scratched my elbow and got a nice bruise on my behind. Ofcourse the camera-man had it on film. It must have looked terrific.

The deserted building with it's broken walls and brown, ochre and beige paint was as beautiful as ever. In the clear, sunny weather the view from the roof was magnificient. The camera-man was delighted. We abseiled from one of the doors that open to a three storey drop. They made us do that three times so they could film it from different angles. I must say that it looked more spectacular than I expected.

CLIMBING UNDER THE BRIDGES - We took the team to the industrial area of the harbour to demonstrate a bridge climb. The "Botlekbrug" is a beautiful steel bridge. A road and a railway pass over it. Every 10 minutes the middle part opens to let a boat through. We decided to climb from the first to the second pillar and make recordings on our return trip. But halfway the camera man shouted "Don't go any further, You'll get too small". So we stopped. Then he shouted "Look out, a boat of the ''Rijkswaterstaat" is coming (the owners of the bridges)". So we hid under one of the girders. In the meantime the camera team on the quay played the game of "Look, we're just tourists".

I'll return to this bridge soon. It's so full of atmosphere. when a train passes overhead you feel the whole construction shaking. It's very easy to place protection with slings and carabiners. We used the 20m rope, because a 60m rope has a bigger chance of getting entangled in the mast of a boat passing underneath.

On one of the bridge sections I found a beautiful laser-beam-reflector, one of those prism-like things. It was attached with a flimsy screw clamp and the temptation was great but still I left it there.

At the beginning of the climb walter hit his head badly on one of the beams while climbing the first ladder. He got a nasty cut ant it bled quite badly. I had offered him a helmet before climbing and he refused it! The funny thing is that he hit his head in exactly the same place during our rehearsal climb last week. Some people never learn (next time we climb I'll knock him unconscious first and wil glue the helmet to his head).

THE END - I had a lot of other places to visit but the producer said "I have enough material for 15 minutes if I wanted". So we skipped the billboard climb, the deserted pier and the demolished power station. It was 16:00.

THE RELATIVITY OF IT ALL - In the car the camera man told us about his high-powered carting motorcar and his love of speed. He told us that sometimes he got out of the cart feeling nauseous because of the speed and the G-forces. He also told us about climbing a 100 meter light mast of the football-stadium in Eindhoven. And he said "I can get into the building you say is inaccessible, I only need to show up with my camera", And he told us about the time he played cat-and-mouse with the Libian secret police and how he got expelled from the country. And he told us about a coleague who had stolen a parasol from Idi Amin's garden. So, what kind of adventurers are we? He should have made a film about himself!

WHAT WILL COME OF THIS? - With the material they have they can portray us like heroes ore like complete idiots. Our fate is in their hands. I'm wondering at the effect on my friends,colleagues and acquaintances. If they hadn't asked me I wouldn't have sought the publicity. Still, the experience was fun.

Also I was surprised that a camera can make you do things you didn't really intend to do. And it distracts very much. Afterwards Walter and I realized we hadn't done any security-checks of our knots, harnesses and the protection we placed. All because of the presence of a camera team.

The programme will be shown on July 8, 1999 - somewhere between 20:00 and 20:30 on SBS 6.

Sunday 20 June 1999

NEW : Added:

• Billboard climb with Walter
• Deserted Nestle factory in the Piekstraat
• Metro tunnel pictures
• Hanno terminal - details only

Saturday 19 June 1999

Did a practice session with Walter for the television recording. We re-explored the deserted building at the Piekstraat and found new entrances to the second and third floors. We also found good climbing and abseiling possibilities: we can abseil from one of the doors that leads to nowhere.

We climbed the 9-floor billboard in Vlaardingen once again. If you know the right techniques it's easy. It was a hot day and up in the billboard the wind was pleasantly cool.

We climbed some routes under the Botlekbrug.

It's a lift-bridge so I wouldn't dare to cross it from one river-bank to the other because it opens very often. And imagine that one rope-team member was on the moving part and one rope-team member on the fixed-part. Brrrr. You would have to cut the rope, just like Joe Simpson.

Still I managed to get myself in trouble. Walter climbed a difficult route under one of the girders, full of overhangs and heel-hooks. But my arms are not as strong as Walter's so I tried to avoid hanging by my arms and only managed to tire myself more. I almost got stuck, almost fell, and left a sling and a carabiner hanging in the route. So poor Walter had to climb the route again to retrieve the gear. In the midddle of these maneuvers a police-boat came by, but the cops were looking the other way (literally). It's a good climbing bridge, there are lots of possible routes there!

May - June 1999 (didn't write the date in my notebook - and I forgot it)

Took a long bicycle trip through the "Old North" (Oude Noorden) of Rotterdam. Saw some adenturous and some interesting places like:

• A neo-gothic church from 1891, the Hildegardiskerk. Maybe it's out-of-use? I'll have to check with the parish priest. I could get an introduction from our local priest. I'm an active church-member. (Hammerstraat)
• A segment of the viaduct of the Hofpleinlijn has been squatted by someone and he has put up notices to keep the thieves and the police out. (Gordelweg / Insulindestraat)
• A nice isolated place under the "Schieplein". The cars wait for the traffic lights 3 meters above your head, you can even hear the conversation and the car-radio's but you're completely un-noticeable - these are my favorite "deserted islands" of the city (Gordelpad / Bergsluis)
• A unique "forest of pillars" under the railroad bridge. It's supported by more than 100 thin concrete columns. An unused train-viaduct is next to it. It's a bad neigbourhood, used syringes lie in the dust under the viaduct (Abrahan van Stolkweg / Horvathweg)
• Deserted appartment buildings that belong to the monumental "Mathenesserbrug". 5 floors hight but I could find no quick way to get inside (Aelbrechtskade / Mathenesserweg)

At the Schieplein I went down an overgrown path along the railroad and I stumbled upon a graffiti crew. They were pleasant and serious guys - 8 from Rotterdam and 3 from the Hague. I guess they were 16 - 23 years old. I wrote my URL in their black books and asked them about the people who wrote graf in the metro-tunnels. They knew some of these people but didn't want to give me their names.

I took pictures of all their pieces but I haven't developed the film yet (and I have no access to the scanner). The pieces were nice and colorful. If you do it this way then graffiti is a sympathetic art, not vandalism. Unfortunately they are painted over by now. It seems that this the Schieplein is a place where graffiti is tolerated so many crews come here to write.

YOU GRAFFITI GUYS, HAVE SOME PATIENCE WITH ME
I'LL POST YOUR PIECES AS SOON AS I CAN

Monday 31 May 1999

NEW : Added a new climb and two possible projects:

• Brezan Automaterialen
• The arch of Blaak station
• The reconstructed Delftsche Poort

Expanded the "Introduction". Added some facts and opinions about Urban Exploration. I was inspired by Johnathan Littell's survey:

• Introduction

I can juggle a bit with 4 balls now. I can manage 12 throws and then the pattern disintegrates. But a month ago I didn't even dream of 4!

Sunday 15 May 1999

NEW : Finally added the stories and pictures of two bridge climbs:

• John Frost bridge in Arnhem
• Waalbrug in Nijmegen

2-11 May 1999

Just got bask from a holiday. There is a lot to explore in Germany (Black Forest) and Switzerland (Berner Oberland) and I wish I had more time.

• The industrial area's of Basel (Switzerland). The biggest train-yard in Europe. Lots of chemical industry. Lots of car-tunnels and viaducts. A river with several climbable bridges over it. Must be paradise!
• A drain (or covered brook) in Freiburg (Germany), just beside the road!
• Many deserted industrial buildings near Boppard (Germany), along the coast of the Rhine.
• Stone-quarries and castle-ruins along the Rhine.
• The Kirchfeld-bridge in Bern (Sw.) - A high, old riveted metal bridge that runs from the museum to the casino. It spans the river Aare, a road and several sport-fields. A sick joke states that the keeper of the sport-fields has a tough job every Monday to fill all the holes in the grass that are made by people jumping off. My half-brother told me that one of his classmates fell of this bridge when he tried to climb a scaffolding used by painters. It was winter and the scaffolding was covered by ice. My father (a doctor) added a gruesome note by stating that this poor boy wasn't dead immediately after his fall.
• Deserted railroad buildings near Bingen (Ge.) - Floors covered with relics of many parties. Even some doors leading underground.
• The 1000m long and 139m high highway-bridge over the "Mosel" (Ge.) - yes it would be climbable on the underside, but it wrenched my gut just looking down, this thing is high!
• A water-powered power station from 1926 - Several back-doors open. Old pipes (riveted not welded!) leading down from the mountains, stairs and a small maintenance railway going up.
• A beautiful train viaduct and bridge crossing the Ravenna-schlucht (Ge.) - Signs saying "It is forbidden to climb the rock". Wild waterfalls. Could not explore the remnants of the previous viaduct from 1885, 37m high.
• The reservoir of the "Schwarzenbach" (1926) - First reservoir-dam made of poured concrete in Europe. One side of the dam would make easy and exciting climbing. Several "drains" with "waterfalls" led into it, but were full wild meltwater at this moment.
• Before breakfast I was able to climb two large trees on two consecutive days. Nice. I got so high (20m+) I had to rappel twice to get down. My 14mm tree-climbing rope is only 20m long. It's very expensive stuff.

Friday 30 April 1999

I thought it would be a good idea to mention all the people who have inspired me on my path to urban adventure. Here they come in random order. If I forget anyone, please remind me!

• Dan Armstrong - for providing me with pictures, megabytes and layout-ideas
• Jan van der Meulen - for his daring examples in buildering, his stories and his pictures
• Ben van der Ploeg - for writing a very nice article about urban adventure
• Ninjalicious - for putting me on the road of urban adventure
• Johnathan Littel - for keeping me on this straight and narrow road
• Anneke Doorduijn - for tolerating my silly ideas and actions
• Kaspar Kazil - for accompanying me on some of my expeditions
• Walter, Dennis and Patrick - for climbing with me, both at the climbing wall and on urban constructions
• Mr. Green and Mr. Orange - for inviting us on the Waalbrug climb and for making such nice pictures
• Ed Stevenhagen - for sending me some nice pictures and for being an inspiring example (he explores caves and recently I learned that he practices fire-breathing too!)
• Mr X - anyone whom I have forgotten, please come forward!

Wedenesday 28 April 1999

Ben van der Ploeg has written an article including a nice interview with me. It's posted on the website of "De Digitale Stad". They have a weekly web-newspaper "De digitale stedeling" . You'll find it under the header "De kick van de verboden toegang" It's in Dutch, so some of you won't be able to understand much. There is a nice photograph of our climb of the Waalbrug in Nijmegen.

Sunday 25 April 1999

We climbed the Waalbrug at Nijmegen. Look for the story and pictures in the "buildering" chapter.

Monday 19 April 1999

NEW : Added:

• Finally added the chapter on climbing transmission line towers. There are some unique and beautiful pictures. They take a lot of time to load but it's worth the wait. Thanks E.S. for sending them to me!

Sunday 18 April 1999

At 8:00 I went climbing with Dennis. We climbed the 70m long arch of "Brezan Automaterialen". Dennis christened this route: "Steel Magnolia". It's approximately 4+ in difficulty. The exposure makes it hard, not the technical difficulty.

Then we climbed a 9 stories high billboard that had recently been erected. We could see the roofs of the appartment-buildings from there. Both were in Vlaardingen. No one noticed or no one cared and yet we were doing all this in full view of everyone.

I wanted to make good on my cowardice in the Mc Donald's billboard-climb so I went first on both climbs. I wasn't really afraid but was quite tired afterwards. We made no technical mistakes this time. We even used some new techniques with success (securing ourselves with slings, using tree-climbers knots).

The side-effects are interesting. I slept very badly on the night before this adventure, thinking all the time of what might go wrong and what should I tell the police. But I also slept badly on the night AFTER, thinking about what could have gone wrong and having quite vivid visions of falling down all these heights. Probably I suppressed the fear during the act and it comes back to me now.

Saturday 17 April 1999

Took a ride through Hoogvliet and the Botlek with Anneke (my wife). She was curious where I had stayed so long yesterday. Drove over the Botlek-bridge and the Spijkenisse-bridge. Saw completely unknown parts of Rotterdam (at least for us). Beautiful spring weather. Sunny, but much colder than it looks. All the cherry trees are in blossom.

Friday 16 April 1999

A reporter from "De Digitale Stad" came to interview me about "Urban Adventure". Friendly, intelligent student from the journalist's academy. I told him about my earliest sources of inspiration (Ninjalicious, Johnathan Littel and Jan van der Meulen). Took him for a ride around the sights of Rotterdam. Showed him some object that JvdM has climbed. Even took him into a deserted building. It was fun. Dropped him off at "Blaak" station so he could take a look at the train-tunnel.

In the evening I explored one of the entrances to the metro tunnels. This might be a possible point of entry but I still lack the courage to step inside. The graffiti-writers are more courageous than I am. Do you have any tips? Are there other Rotterdam metro-walkers out there?

Drove over and under the Botlek-bridge at night. Possible climbing object.

Photographed the Botlek-tunnel. Nice industrial people-free area.

Large Shell-refinery. SF-like machinery reminding me of "Star Wars". Lots of pipe-constructions and lights glowing in the dark. You meet no pedestrians at all. Only heavy trucks that almost seem to drive over your small civilian car. You really don't belong here. Nice! Home at 22:30.

Thursday 15 April 1999

My father has been released from hospital with a positive outcome. The most dangerous and lethal causes of his symptoms have been excluded (he even got an MRI-scan). But the real cause has not yet been found. So he'll have to be very careful in the next weeks.

Wedensday 14 April 1999

Got beautiful pictures from Mr. Green and Mr. Orange. They have climbed the John Frost bridge in Arnhem. The bridge of the film "A bridge too far". There are many more nice bridges in this area (Zwolle, Nijmegen, Deventer).

Sunday 11 April 1999

What a day today! Good, medium and bad things happening.

Good: made a small bicycle trip through "Het Oude Noorden" and discovered some romantic places. Old school buildings, botanic gardens, cemeteries, old brick chimneys. All quite near to where I live. I simply hadn't bothered to explore this area!

Medium: as expected our choir performance was mediocre. Of the 10 pieces we sang 2 went quite wrong and only 5 were really good. In Sweelinck's "Psalm 150", a piece for 8 voices I sing the first tenor part. In the last 15 bars I (and my colleague) lost "sync" with the rest of the choir and were not able to catch up again. Our conductor's comment: "It's a long time ago that a performance of mine went this wrong". But as always, the audience didn't notice all of the errors and the people went home not dissatisfied.

Bad: during an outing with his grandson my father became unexpectedly and violently ill and was taken into hospital. He has recovered by now but will remain in hospital for further screening. He is himself a doctor and my mother is also a doctor so I was explained all the possible causes of his sudden ilness, ranging from the innocent to the quite unthinkable. Let's hope for the best.

Because once all the logistics had been taken care of there was nothing else we could do I updated my website to keep myself busy.

NEW : Added:

• Dan Armstrong's pictures of the Cleanland factory
• Dan Armstrong's pictures: of the Hanno fertilizer terminal
• A new Introduction to the "Urban Panorama" section including: maximum viewing distances, and "urban ley lines" + a nice "alignment" found by Aad van der Struijs
• Added some cosmetic details:
• A stylized Rotterdam skyline from the voting list for the provicial council
• An extra picture from Aachen to get a taste of the December atmosphere.

If all goes well I hope to add spectacular pictures taken from a transmission line tower.

9 April 1999

Finally I have some time to update the website. My tax-declaration is finished, my exam was done today (result could be positive) and this weekend we present our new choir repertoire (Dutch reneissance music, this result might not be positive, it's difficult and we could need more rehearsal time).

NEW : Added:

• Information provided by readers: Rappelling, Buildering, Unexplored Locations, Tunnel
• Monte Cervino, Vrij Entrepot and Dordrecht Bridges.

March-April 1999

Was too busy with other things to explore much or to update my website. Still had many new experiences:

• joined FLORON, a group that makes an inventory of all wild plant species in the Netherlands. I'll try to explore some 1km*1km squares to see what grows there.
• experimented with tree climbing. First used prussik knots. Now (after a discussion on the internet) I got the "blake's hitch" working and I can use the proper techniques now. Sat high in an old willow tree watching the people passing underneath. No one noticed me.
• explored the islands "Stormpoldervloedbos" and "De Zaag" and planed further treeclimbing activities there. Discovered the carcasses of old wooden boats in the mud. Improvised a cable slide from one tree to another using slings, carabiners and 7mm static rope. Had a lot of fun with my son.
• went to the "Touwhuis" rope shop to buy 14mm rope for a more solid cable slide. A Danish webside about "fun rope constructions" states that the cheapest rope that you can get is good enough for this purpose. I agree with them. The person in the shop didn't agree. According to him only certified rope was good enough. With a lot of bad looks and warnings like "You do it at your own risk" I got 25 meters.
• experimented with the rope. Found that it is too rough to use as a slide. A carabiner has too much friction. But it will work fine if I can buy a 14mm pulley somewhere.
• experimented with tightrope walking using the same rope. Was able to stay on the rope for three whole seconds. I think I need more practice.

13 March 1999

NEW : Added:

• New pictures from the train tunnel

Walter has bought 60m of rope and 10 "quickdraws". And sunday was a beautiful sunny spring day. We spent the whole day climbing the artificial mountain (Monte Cervino) at Bergschenhoek. In the sun you were sweating and in the shadow you were freezing.

All the early trees (prunus) are in full bloom.

Saturday I took the whole family on an excursion to the building site of the new Benelux tunnel. The 6 tunnel elements are almost ready and they are lying in a dock in Barendrecht. Massive concrete and steel structures. Hollow. Later this year they will be floated, towed to their destination and sunk on the bottom of the river. The tunnel will contain 2 car lanes, 2 metro lanes, 2 truck lanes, one bicycle lane and one emergency tunnel in the middle. I walked through all of them, but ofcourse this doesn't count as an adventure.

7 March 1999

NEW : Added:

• New buildering adventures by Jan van der Meulen:
• Illegal rappel from the Euromast
• Illegal rappel from Nationale Nederlanden

28 February 1999

Explored the island of "De Zaag" near Krimpen a/d IJssel. Found nice wild nature, fallen trees and decayed dyke-walls. Took pictures of the (still operational) sawmill.

Ed Stevenhagen sent me beautiful pictures taken from the top of a 220kV transmission line tower. Johnathan Littel sent me nice pictures of the Rotterdam metro. Thanks to both of you.

13 February 1999

Saturday Morning: Explored the area around Wilton Feyenoord with my son. So didn't do anything illegal, dangerous or stupid. Took pictures of the "De Kuijper" distillery in Schiedam, it has a beautiful high brick chimney. And there are some small holes in the fence, but I'm sure it is guarded pretty tightly. Found a nice pier at the Mercuriusweg. Walked a long pier near "Hoekloos" and looked up close at an oil tanker.

Saturday Afternoon: Went climbing with Walter. We climbed the concete mini-mountain at the climbing center all day. Outside, freezing in the shadow and quite nice in the sun. This mountain is 6m high. We reached the top several times from several sides. We had lots of fun!

7 February 1999

NEW : This time two speculative additions. I have documentation about possible new expeditions but I have not explored them in detail yet. The Rotterdam bunkers are very explorable, but should I drive 3 hours to Aachen in Germany ? I'm interested in your reactions:

• Bunkers in Rotterdam ?
• Drains in Aachen ?

Sunday 31 January 1999

NEW : On 12 December 1998 I explored the harbour with Dan Armstrong. It was wonderful to explore together and not be on my own. We visited a lot of old and new sites. Some will have to be explored further, for example the Wilton-Feijenoord wharf. We explored:

• Sluisjesdijk 117
• The fertilizer terminal and climbed the crane
• The Soufflet rice terminal and climbed the conveyor belts

And we only scratched at:

• The Wilton-Feijenoord Wharf
• The Benelux tunel

Yesterday I re visited the Wilton-Feijenoord wharf and discovered abandoned bridge rooms, ruins, high cranes and many holes in the fence. I'll have to go back there soon. Nice freezing weather, so NO MUD! Sunny. That's very rare these days.

Sunday 24 January 1999

Today I tried to get on top of two large container cranes but I failed. The stairs were blocked with steel sheets. It is possible to climb over, but I will only do it "top roped", otherwise it's not worth the risk.
Explored some harbour quays along the Waalhaven, but found little of interest. Everything is very much in use, nothing is abandoned here.
Re-visited the Persoonshaven and the Piekstraat and explored the ruined laboratory (?) that is under reconstruction: holes in the floor going down three levels. Nice.

Sunday 17 January 1999

Today I climbed a steel billboard (5 floors high), a crane (3 floors high) and visited a highly visible but unfrequented island under the Brienenoord-bridge. Wild nature, fallen and rotting trees, riverbank, sand, ships, concrete structures, graffiti. Great.

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