Operation "Easter Basket" - Coal Mine W.

This was one we should have prepared better. We got caught before finding the motherload in this abandoned mine.
We were in the Ruhr area, and one of the things this area is famous for is mining. There are so many abandoned mines in the area, but a lot of them have been turned into museums or places for events, and only a few remain that are "lost".
We had spent quite a few hours in the abandoned prison, but we really wanted to find a mine, so we just drove to some spots that I had on my list but didn't really know if they were still interesting in the urbex-sense.  Most of them weren't.
We were about to give up. It was getting darker, it was still raining and we were supposed to pick up one more friend later who was going to be on tour with us for the next two days.
his mine was actually the last on my list, and we had almost lost hope when we got there and did in fact find a small hole in the front fence near the main administration building.
We slipped through and ran towards the building.
There was no access in sight, so we kept looking until I found an open window that allowed us to get into the lower level of the administration building.
First we found a modern - but mine-like - changing room. It looked like a normal coop in a mine, only much smaller.
We went on to explore the rest of the adminsitration building and did find the access to the descent in the mine, which unfortunately was sealed.
We left the building and started heading for the more industrial parts in the back of the area, when we were spotted by a security guard.
He had us.
He was really friendly though and just told us to go to the front gate to tell his colleague to let us out. So we went there and the colleague was furious when he saw us. He really wanted to call the police until the small guy came back again and asked him to leave us alone - after all, it was Good Friday.
We got off the hook, he only wrote our names and ID numbers on a small paper (which probably found its way into the trash later) and then let us out the front gate.
Later I heard that there is a much better access somewhere else where it's a lot easier not to get caught...so I suppose that there will be a next time.


To find out more about the history of this mine and to check out all the photos from this industrial monument, click the button below.