Taking more with me.

I've spent the last two days carrying supplies down and sleeping at the foot of the stairs. Water takes the most trips. I can fill a bag with food and batteries, but a few containers of water are enough to make the climb miserable.

I bought a small utility cart. I'd ruled one out because of the staircase, then realized I could take the wheels and handle off and carry it down in pieces. Getting the frame down was awkward. It's together again now, and I've tried pulling it across the floor of the large room. It rolls easily.

I've loaded it with food, water, batteries and first-aid supplies. There's room for the sleeping bag and camera equipment too. I can pull most of the weight instead of having it hanging off my shoulders.

At first I thought this might have been some sort of fallout shelter, built during the Cold War and forgotten. That would at least explain why somebody had gone to so much trouble underground.

But I haven't found anything that looks as though people were meant to stay there. No bunks, no toilets, no storage shelves. I keep checking the walls for fittings or marks where something might have been removed.

There's nothing. The surfaces are so smooth, and everywhere is clean. No dust in the corners. No insects. No scraps of anything left behind. The only debris I've seen is what I knocked through from my own basement.

I've come upstairs to wash, finish packing and write this. After the last load, I'm going past the routes I've already checked.

This time I want to stay until I find something substantial, or at least understand what the place was built for. I can't keep spending days down there and coming home to stare at the same pages in my notebook.

I don't know if this will be my last entry. This isn't a call for help. I just thought I should leave something here so that somebody, even someone who finds this page by accident, knows where I've gone. Through the opening in the basement, down the stairs, and into the passages beyond the large room.

In case I don't come back.