Near death drain experiences and reverse syphons.
The reverse syphon though is less well known, and much deadlier in my opinion. A reverse syphon is where the drain tunnel submerges fully to pass under an above ground obstacle such as a road, railway or canal, even rivers some times. It's like a sump, but with no breathing gap at the top. If you're lucky, it will be a short distance, with no obstacles stuck in it.
I was almost killed by one several years back. I was exploring with some mates, including an explorer who was older and more experienced. We figured it would be great to get some mall inflatable boats and ride along a water supply channel, through the tunnel along it. Luckily the older explorer insisted we stop at every tunnel we could not see through end to end, let a boat through on a rope, and check the boat at the other end. This was fine for several tunnels, but then we got to a short tunnel under a major freeway. It was maybe 100 meters long, but had a curve in it, so we could not see through it. So we stopped, let a boat go through and even before we ran across the freeway we knew there was an issue because the boat rope had slack well before it should have come out the other end.
Then the rope pulled hard again as the boat was pulled along the tunnel. The guy at the other end, the older explorer ran us saying "You better come see this."
We got over the freeway, at the outlet of the tunnel and the inflatable boat was all full of water and was deflating from several scratches in it. Something had clearly happened. Lucky old mate had a gopro camera which he tied to the semi deflated boat and the rope. We called another mate at the other end to pull the boat back and then let it through again. Long story short, the Go-pro footage showed the roof of the tunnel come down under the road and there was a 40-50 meter section where the tunnel was fully submerged. Plus when the boat came back, it got stuck up against the roof for a while before the current puled it under.
If we'd been in the boat, we would have drowned. That really scared me and made me start taking safety more seriously.
I've only ever encountered a reverse syphon in a drain once since, but I've read about some drains with them. Corn Brook in the UK, and Park River in the US.
Anyone ever encounter one, or heard of any? Had any similar near death drain experiences?
I haven't done any go with the flow boating in drains. Nor have I had any near death experiences as I'd classify them. Most I can think of is falling down the manhole ladder in Great Staircase. I was pretty drunk and idk, just missed a rung and went straight down.
Cunningham Pier I was drinking on the litter trap and my leg slipped between it somehow. Opened a large gash just below the knee which required stitches and I could barely walk for a week, even with strong prescriptions. Ruined my Christmas holidays for sure
But I suppose we just all need to count our lucky stars sometimes. You can take every precaution in the world but in the type of unpredictable environments we often find ourselves in sometimes it doesn't matter regardless.
Stay safe out there.
Wander often. Wonder always.