Naughty passage through Standedge Tunnel

A group of daredevil spelunkers from the UK Urban Exploration Forums have not only just made an illicit midnight trip through Standedge Tunnel, but have also written it up, complete with photos as witness. 

It took them a little under 3 hours, including stops in each of the adits (passages linking the canal tunnel to the parallel rail tunnel).

I daresay BW will now be looking at making the tunnel gates more 'dinghy-proof'.

While one has to (officially) frown on the souls who made this passage - and BW will probably pursue them - I can't help but admire their daring.  Well done, chaps! 

But it's a different kind of daring compared with the old days. Back in 1948 Tom Rolt, Robert Aickman, James Sutherland and Elizabeth Jane Howard made a much braver attempt in the leaky Ailsa Craig, when the tunnel was in unknown condition.  (An excerpt from Aickman's biography describing the passage is here)

The tunnel's in determinedly better shape now and the latest venturers took a pair of dinghies in case of emergencies.  And, why, the wusses in these pictures were even wearing safety helmets!

In fact, their biggest risk was probably in trespassing, being detected by the infra-red motion sensors in the tunnel, and getting caught and fined.  (Oh, and NOT WEARING LIFEJACKETS.  That was probably their biggest crime in BW's eyes).  Their greatest success was in writing up the trip before anyone cottoned on. In short, cocking a snook at authority.  Well done, chaps!

I think I'll match their bravado by using their photos without their permission, and see if they can catch me at it.

[via Andrew Instone-Cowie on uk.rec.waterways]