There’s something unsettling about abseiling *inside* a mountain - down into a void that was never meant to be. The chasm lip was lined with vintage trash. The partially flooded adit to the right led into the mine. After about a hundred yards my torchlight stopped illuminating the way, as if it was being swallowed by something. As I got closer I realised what was happening: the entire middle of the mountain was missing and we’d arrived at the void proper. Around this time a fighter jet flew overhead and the whole hill shook (and then shook some more). We rigged an abseil, entrusting our lives to a two-hundred-year-old corroded iron ring. At the bottom of the pit we found the second tunnel that led to the underground lake, and there we found that famed mountain of trash. A small dinghy had been left by someone gone before (though no sign of Charon). We paddled across one by one with a long leash tied to the raft so it could be pulled back. It’s possible to shoot here but we’d have to hang a light in the chasm above and plan well. This is not a place to get stuck.
RP Field Notes (project to be announced)
