Return to the Red Earth

Greetings friends and foes. It has been a while since I last wrote on this blog, the summer has kept me busy, and indeed part of that business involved some good old urban and not so urban exploration. I'm am currently no longer a bum and actually have productive things that I ought to be doing but hopefully I will find the will and the time to write on this fine blog I have here.

The last entry described me and Mr S. exploration of the Red Earth Ruins in Luxembourg and it is safe to say it was a success beyond our expectations. Best exploration I have described here by far. The Red Earth however is has a lot more to offer than what we accomplished on that sunny summer day so naturally we decided to return a few weeks later. This turned out to be yet another mighty exploration of abandoned and dangerous spaces. A most worthwhile use of our time.

Once again we drive south to the land of heavy industry and pollution. Esch Sur L'Alzette. The Red Earth, Terra Rosa, les Terres Rouges. We leave the car near the location of the previous entry. The brown building towering in the distance. We gave it a name. Overlord. Overlord is where we summited the city and took those awesome pictures last time.

But today we do not go there, we know what is there and we seek the unknown. So we cross a road and head towards an area we scouted last time from the rooftops. 

There is hardly a fence, the ease of the trespass makes me think we are hardly breaking a law, and if we are no one gives a damn. We find ourselves in a space dense with vegetation. The sky is white, covered by clouds, the atmosphere thick. Soon a building emerged from beyond the brush. It is quickly captured by a camera, but the weather conditions are getting in the way of the aesthetics.

We keep going past the dense brush and reach the open wasteland, a giant, dead factory looms ahead. It calls to us.

Here the world seems dead. But yet again we are in populated territory. The urban explorer can find solitude in a place where people have to live like books in a shelf. All you have to do is get off the trodden path.

Nearer to us lies this building. It is one of the few in the area that is properly protected. No way in. No matter, the dead factory looks far more appealing.

Mr S. poses in the wasteland.

The explorer surveys the target.

A way in, but not the one we take. We must first explore the perimeter further.

Verticality.

We scope another entrance, this looks interesting.

More form the outside, the giant's bones lay bare, anchored in the dust. Feeling poetic today so please bear with me.

We step back to capture more of this place.

What is on the other side.

More bones. "Dust you are and unto dust you will return"

Mad Max where art thou?

Mr S. observes an ancient hatch. The hatch in turn, observes Mr S.

We choose out infiltration point. A bridge across a "subterranean river"

This factory corpse looks like it was some kind iron refinery. This underground river must once have been the assembly line where the filtered iron ore was carried out of the facility.

Whatever it was it is now flooded and has a life of its own.

The bridge we have crossed.

Shimmy along the side of the river. An obstacle course of old machinery.

Reflections and dust.

Circuit panel from the early history of electronics.

Mr S. is impressed by this location.

More maquinas.

An exit to the other side.

Back in the brush.

Unstable staircase. This time our good judgement wins and we look elsewhere to go up.

Bones show through the decay.

This tower is the high point of the building and the end goal of this adventure.

The same thing from a different angle.

The industrial jungle.

We find our way back into the netherworld of water and reflections. My thoughts: "a kayak might be in order."

Mr is in the underworld.

Waiting for Charon the boatman.

Circuits in context.

A grease conglomerate stains the river.

"Read the Bible" someone wrote here. But I did not read it.

I know this is a lot of pictures of the same thing but there is something otherworldly about this "subterranean river". I hope that animals live here, fish and birds and things.

"Heeeeeeyyyy"

Back into the post-industrial jungle.

We locate a potential way up.

This time the preservation instinct does not prevail...

...and up we go

Mr S and the wastes.

This is a ladder we do not take.

Notice that there is a street barely 30 meter from where we are where people live, eat, park their cars, have their families... Seen from inside a dead colossus it seems surreal.

The stairs keep taking us up.

The wasteland outside. Notice the Overlord in the background. That is the building of the previous entry.

Mr S. grass, and concrete.

We reach a new layer of the complex. A very different vibe from the netherworld.

The hall is covered by red dust. The remaining iron oxide from the operational days of this facility.

The low light means high ISO which means grainy photographs. Still cool as hell though.

More of this rusted tunnel.

Its safer than it looks. I think.

Walking into the unknown.

A bridge of concrete between Mr S. and the void.

A window into Overlord.

Broken glass and dead estate.

The explorer and the dust.

Lifting the dust makes for cool light effects so we do it and take photos.

And more photos...

And more photos...

A strange almost abstract window into the jungle outside.

This chamber is almost under the tower, out final goal.

Mr S, the dust and the jungle.

The great tower of Barad Dur.

A significant precipice.

Windows...

The Great Dust Hall.

Stairs go down but up is our direction. We do not take them yet.

This is the tower block, alas the stairs are broken. Our hopes of reaching the top are shattered. But there is a lot more to see...

The netherworld seen from above.

Overlord in a triangle.

Another great hall of dust, this time it is white.

More dust hall.

The explorer and the light.

There are letters on the windows.

Leave nothing but footprints...

A possible way onto the rooftops?

Mr S. tests the grounds and finds it too unstable.

The roofs.

An entire wing of the complex is revealed behind this plastic curtain. This will take us far.

We have gone up another level. This extension is largely made of wood. We miss the solid confort of concrete.

Writings on the dust.

If we fall we go there...

Walk onto the light.

And find a way onto the rooftops. This time it is viable. We are happy.

The living and the dead.

The overlord is a permanent presence throughout the day.

We consider taking this bridge but deem it unwise.

Streets and normality.

The tower, we have renewed hope of reaching this summit.

We are in, it is rusty and decayed but the stairs still stand, there is no turning back.

Overlord ever present.

And we reach the top.

There is a balcony.

Panorama shot of the inside.

Panorama shot of the outside.

The rooftops from the summit. We must return now.

Back in the wood hutt extension we notice how rotten the floorboards are.

We return to the stairs from before,

And descend...

...into Hades.

And we reach the bridge. And find our way back outside, in the wasteland.

To the bones of the giant.

And we notice another heroin den. The comforts of home. A reminder that other folks also visit the netherworld. With other, less academic, intents...

Another picture of the Colossus. It will remain here for some time until it becomes dust.

We leave through a great hangar.

And through an alley...

To be confronted with Leatherface.

A terrifying end.