A bit of a two sided tale here. Initially i thought we had hit the mother of all jackpots. As we drew closer and looked across the river we saw realms and realms of twisting pipes, expansive buildings and stacks as far as the eye could see. With its concrete banks it looked like an old warship limping back to port. Even driving around the site took ten minutes!, surely this cant all be the Clabecq foundry?.

After getting lost in the nearby streets we were soon back on track and hopping over the rustiest fence in the world. The whole thing almost collapsing under our weight. It was here the reality of Clabecq became clear. Absolutely empty. The expansive buildings that had looked oh so appetizing from the outside had nothing in them apart from small bits of rubble and twisted metal. The smaller buildings were too unsafe to enter so we skipped them, although it didn't look like it would be very interesting anyway. Oh well we continued deeper into the site, heading towards what i think was the main furnace.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG! (French gibberish). Crap, being in a foreign country i couldn't work out if they were workers or scum. In England its easiest thing in the world distinguishing between the two. Scum talk like council home pirates, wear clothes that were never in fashion and probably cost less than a Mcdonalds (Happy meal). Almost always have their pregnant sister or daughter with them to carry the loot and tend to have a token gold tooth. Referred to as "Bling Bling". Workers as you might have guessed are the complete opposite, well usually anyway. As we couldn't see exactly where they were we had to keep extra quiet and slowly crept our way through the bushes.

We took a little stroll around the bottom of one of the crank sections before heading up. Rusty ladders + height + heavy people is a formula for disaster and i wasn't feeling it one bit, nevertheless up we went. The fact the entire structure was swaying in the wind didn't help. As we were getting out our cameras we heard a massive "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP", and a skidding sound. What the hell?.

"Oi, We've been seen!"
"By who?"
"The f****** guy who just blew the horn, there in that truck, look he's bloody pointing at us"
"Crap!, another guys just stopped too"

Sure enough two workers had gotten out of their trucks and were pointing at us. Although they were quite a distance from us i had a sneaking feeling they were not pleased. We watched as the second worker took out his phone and continued pointing at us. a minute later we heard police sirens, FU**!.

We climbed down as fast as we could, just glimpsing some form of security coming up the main drive. We made haste for the exit. All seemed to be going well until we heard barking in the distance. I don't know about site but i jammed my fist onto the turbo button and flew like the blue falcon, I'm pretty sure i left a vapor trail, i wasn't hanging around. Out of breath and exhausted we vaulted the fence onto the adjacent railway and headed up a nearby side street, safe!.

Sigh, as we meandered back to the car we looked back, The industrial giant still looming over us. You know what, I'm not impressed. Even with its monstrous size and height it couldn't compare to half the smaller sites I've visited in terms of charm and character. Clabecq - All bark and no bite!