After a night sleeping in an old mansion, we wearily woke to a misty grey Belgian day, a slight chill hung in the air as we carried our sleeping gear to the awaiting explorer-mobile. The joy of the Sat Nav not being up to date means we lost an hour trying to access a road that could no longer be accessed and having to do various detours. Finally, though, we were on our way to Mechelen, a not-insignificant town between Antwerpen and Brussel. We parked up near a canal, vigorously checking the parking restrictions. A ticket here would put a sizeable dent in our budget. After walking up and down the back wall of the Comet Factory, we made a few suggestions as to ways in. However, some checking by OllieGT found that there was an easier route in. We walked into a few large empty warehouse rooms.

This area was the only one of interest, and I use that term loosely. Some sort of machinery was no longer wanted, and left behind when the warehouses were cleaned out.

After searching around, we realised we were in a different property to the one that Comet occupied. So we left through a door that was wide open, and went straight into the front of the Comet factory, dodging the trucks that came and went, demolishing the place.
The main thing I wanted to see was the staircase, as I do love a good staircase. However, it had suffered since the pictures I'd seen were taken. Wooden planks lay over the stairs, and graffiti was daubed on the walls. The flames and worker images still adorned the wall.

The front of the factory was all offices, and the locals and vandals from afar had left their mark on the place.

A few interesting architectural flourishes remained untouched, including these block windows on the 2nd floor.

There being little to see, we went down to the ground level and wandered into an empty warehouse/factory space, similar to that we found earlier on that morning. A curious mix of concrete and metal stairs being the only sight of interest.

A view from the roof. The warehouse area at the top left of the picture is from a different property, where we first entered. The buildings in the bottom left are part of the Comet factory that we wandered around. The buildings on the right are also part of this factory but were being demolished. One imagines the whole site will one day no longer exist.

The site wasn't what I expected, and I left feeling disappointed. I apologised to the others, as I had organised the trip and locations, this one was a waste of time really. In this game, you're gonna make a few wrong turns. Props to OllieGT and Residues.