Durgin (left) playing with his quartarina (like an ocarina but with half as many holes) while Eli contemplates annoying the other drainers again with his shrieky little whistle
This expo was named after Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows Part I, which happened earlier on in the year and involved a couple of the same drains. Which was enough to declare this expo to be a sequel, or so I gather.
The first drain was Schweppervescence, which I'd encountered at an earlier expo It's a pretty drain, if short; and due to the recent warm dry weather, the side tunnel that had been a raging torrent of watery darkness last time I'd visited was practically dry. So we decided to check it out. Annoyingly, it was full to the brim with mosquitoes, which was rather odd since I've not encountered them in any other drains. Fortunately it was also short, so I didn't have to spend very long in Mosquito Heaven.
After finishing with Schweppervescence, our next stop was Cafe Dianetics. This is a large and popular drain with many interesting features. I have no idea where it got its name, and nor did anyone else when I asked - many drain names are Lost In The Mists Of Time, and I guess this was one of those. Anyway, entry was via a smallish gutterbox in the street, which led into a long crawl-pipe. It was that annoying diameter where one can just about waddle along it squatting down and bent over a bit, and was too long to comfortably crawl along on hands and knees without kneepads. It went for what seemed like half a kilometer but was really probably only 50 or 100 metres, and by the time I got to the main drain I was utterly pooped. Ahh well, it's good thigh exercise, I suppose.
Cafe Dianetics' claim to fame is a large number of interesting junction rooms and side branches leading to cool places. My digicam lacks a sufficiently wide-angle lens to really give a clear impression of the size and shape of most of the junction rooms. Basically they consist of an open area with tunnels of various sizes leading into them, sometimes at various levels. Junction rooms also sometimes contain concrete baffles to control water flow, ledges (dunno why they're there but they are handy for drainers to sit on), ladders leading up vertical tunnels to access holes in the road, and often have interestingly sloped walls and ceilings. Cafe D's junction rooms had good examples of all of these things in various permutations.
Durgin (left) playing with his quartarina (like an ocarina but with half as many holes) while Eli contemplates annoying the other drainers again with his shrieky little whistle
This is a pretty reasonable pic of one of the smaller junction rooms.
One of Cafe D's more popular features is a shortish side-tunnel that leads to an exit with a grille that can be lifted with a bit of effort. This stretch is sometimes known as the Grille Room.
Looking back down the Grille Room the other way, here's a natural-light pic of a couple of drainers lurking in the junction room it leads off from.
The Party Room, venue of Elfen's birthday party or so I'm told. It occurred before I joined the Clan, anyway. The low tunnel to the left of the pic leads to the Canasta Room. I didn't investigate it coz a couple of drainers took that opportunity to vanish down there for a smoke.
A bit further along, here's Trendsetta looking back up the drain at the waterfall we've just clambered down.
Here's Cafe Dianetics' exit, into a park. 50 metres or so before we emerged, we found a baby blackbird sitting dispiritedly on the floor of the tunnel. Being pretty confident that blackbirds don't nest in drains, I brought it out with us and released it into the shrubbery, whereupon it fluttered away. My good deed for the day, I guess.