Letter To a Freedom Seeker

Death of Fear Manifesto / Lovers Army Remix 

Earthquakes

I'm still alive!
(not for lack of trying!)

Sorry for not updating sooner and if i stressed anyone out.

The earthquakes were in the far east of Turkey, I was in Ankara when they hit.

I don't have the bandwidth to upload photos here at the moment and I don't have the time to seek it out as i'm madly running around from one end of Belgium to another (read: not in Turkey any more so all safe).

Hopefully France will be better prepared for my internet needs.

Cheers,

Turkey Part 1 - Family

So.

The past few days in Turkey have been fairly low key. Mostly visiting family and friends which has been good.

But I'll share with you a few personal tid-bits and a couple of interesting sites if you're keen to read on...

On the Occupy Wall St Protests

http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/protesters-arrested-as-chaos-descends-on-cbd-20111021-1mb07.html


I swung by these the other day in the city and took some pictures are the protesters were setting up camp.
What i couldn't discern, in my hour or so of being there, was what the people there wanted.
I know this has been questioned by many people and discussed at length, I know what they are on about -vaguely anyway- but it struck me as odd that after spending a fair amount of time watching them, no clear message was delivered.


What they really need to do is to:
A) Organise some clear goals
B) Get rid of all the other nut-jobs and political activists trying to hijack this cause to further their own.


In regards to point B) while I was there I saw fundamentalist Christians spreading their gospel, I saw socialists, pro-refugee/anti-detention-protesters, pro-gay-marriage protesters and everything else I think I've ever seen 'protesting' in Melbourne all in the one spot. Clearly trying to swell the numbers by having multiple causes.


If I remember, I'll upload some pictures pre-police-takedown when I return to Melbourne.

Europe

To all those unawares.
I'm heading out to Europe for the next few weeks. I'll be back about mid-november but i won't be free to come exploring as per normal until early december due to other commitments.
The plan is to explore the fuck outta the places i'm heading to (France, Belgium and the Netherlands)
as i've previously visited them all before and seen all the standard issue tourist stuff (Eiffel tower, Lourve, chocolate factories, etc etc). I'll see how much i can pack into what will certainly be a few short weeks.
I won't have an Aussie cell on me so the best way to contact me will be email or through here.

If you can think of anywhere I should check out that's not 'on the map' lemme know! ;)

On Copper Cutters and getting busted.

Uh -oh! 

For the first time EVER. I got busted.

This happened a while ago at a location I hadn't visited before. I won't mention the location or the date in case someone comes looking for me (healthy paranoia).

I'll start at the beginning of the day, I woke up early to go rock climbing out in Werribee Gorge with some friends, up at 7AM isn't something I usually do and as a result, I only got 5-6 hours of good sleep.
I spent the day trekking about, climbing and having a blast, after heading back home, after nearly 9 hours of climbing (and driving) I was fairly tired... I got a call from 2 of my friends saying that we should go exploring.

Me, thinking that was a good idea (and wanting to check out some places I'd previously seen (both on-line and while driving around) agreed. I swung by and picked up the crew.
We arrived on site and loosened some previously cut wires in the fence. This was to be the beginning of several mistakes...

Metal Factory

This place was a cool find up north. Its a fairly empty shell of a place, but we visited after a bit of rainfall, its a huge place. And lots of twisted bits of steel and empty hangars to wander around...

It was fun. 

Ex-Explosives storage facility

This place was pretty cool.

One of the more unusual places, its actually part of a cow farm...

Back in the day, this place used to be used for explosive testing and storage. 

This is a shot via Google earth of the area. As you can clearly see, its very large. I believe its on private property. Be we had no issues accessing it when we went to check it out. 

Camberwell House Shopfront

This place is a very unusual find. Its an entire double story shop, but the back half has been removed leaving it exposed. As well as that, there is a strange underground area... Not much to see. But good for a bit of a wander if you're in the area.... 

Bayside Hotel

Need a place to stay? How about the Bayside Hotel?

A classy establishment with ample space, especially for tall people!

Rock-climbing

Rock Climbing In Mount Macedon. Its Great fun. 

Our 'guide' lead-climbed it (although one or two bits may have fallen out during the climb >_>

I highly suggest it, and hopefully, I'll be going again sometime soon.

4D - The Audio Engineer's Experience!

I'd dropped my mates a copy of my maps a while back, one evening not to long ago it was suggested that we check out 4D as the group hadn't been there. I'd been there previously myself and found it only moderately interesting. Not being one to say no to exploring though I agreed and we were on our way! 

Well... It turned out to be quite the experience in the end. Two of the people that came along are, for lack of a better term, audiophiles. One is studying to become an audio engineer, while the other practices singing in his spare time. 

What I had failed to give much notice to last time, was the extreme echo generated by this space. Any sounds made would echo for up-to 10 seconds!!! Incredible. 

The singer of the group (lets call him J) started singing deep low notes... And wow! The echoes were intense. It sounded like church music almost! 

We didn't have much time though as this was the last place we were checking out for that night and needed to get home. But we vowed we would return... With a vengeance! 

The Deathstar

In the final poop-related-piece for the near-future...

Much like the aformentioned dreadnaught, this place is a sewerage overflow that is also rarely used. So rarely infact. That all the matter left over has actually dried up and now resembles a dried lake of shit. 

Classy. 

So....

Dreadnaught - The Sewer Overflow

The largest one that the Exploring community is currently aware of in Melbourne.

Between roughly hockey field size length and width, this massive underground chamber is probably 3 storeys high and 2 meters underground.

Thankfully, for us explorers, it rarely gets used, hence why its safe to explore! All the same, the ground is covered in decomposing matter. Not the nice kind of matter either...

Read on after the break for more...

Live sewer. Ew.

Anyone who knows exploring knows you don't go into sewers... Its bad for more than the obvious reasons. Poisonous (not to mention foul smelling and usually flammable) gas is a serious issue.

If you do go. Its best to bring disposable clothes, overalls, gloves, boots, breathing gear.

Or if you're like the guy in the picture, balls of steel.

This fine gentleman descended three (count 'em THREE!!) storeys underground to check out this new-found sewer. Note the colour of his gloves and shirt as he climbs back up!

There is nothing quite like the sight (and smell) of human waste flooding past 3 storeys below.

Disturbing. Yet, to an explorer... Interesting ;)

Deus Ex - Human... Reality?

Thanks to Kronos for the link to this. As previously mentioned, i've played (and thoroughly enjoyed Deus Ex), this however is about comparing the augmentations presented in the game to the augmentations currently available now. 

Yarra Bridge Room

A tiny little bridge room, but fun to clamber about in, out and around of.You can see the yarra straight through the walkway...

Pirates invading Caulfield Church!

I've always been a fan of 'creative' art. Never so much of the church. So... We decided one night to commandeer a church flagpole and fly the Jolly Roger high and mighty!

 

With great success, this flag could be seen from the train on approach to Caulfield station!
Whats more, it was there for almost a month before the church owners noticed and took the flag down!

Exhaust Tower

This one's an old favourite.