Urban Exploration: Dadi Park Belgium

People call it a themepark, it's more of a glorified playground. A local priest pushed for it to be opened in 1950 and things grew from there, until after a series of minor mishaps a 9 year old boy lost his arm in the park in 2000. People suggested he lost his arm in a ride, but after some digging I'm led to believe he lost his arm in a full-length turnstile type gate which didn't stop turning and caught him on the arm. And rather than ripping it off like many people like to think, I suspect he just broke it so severely it had to be amputated. Unpleasant business either way and it led to an increase of complaints and a decrease in visitors until it closed for renovations in 2002 and never reopened.

Now it's a refuge for chavs and photographers.
Oh and ghost hunters apparently, there's a whole site dedicated to someone who went there to feel the presence of entities, near the slides and the game hall. It is close to the church and it's said to have been built over (part of) the cemetery, so I guess that gives rise to some interesting ghost stories. The "ghost hunter" goes so far as to claim they saw a demon with red glowing eyes near the toilets.

I guess even demons have to go number two.

One of the halls which I think held carting, some games and climbing gear and well as a ball pit, currently the saddest ball pit in existence. All the plastic balls have been brushed and there's broken glass in the nigh-empty pit. Not that anything is still in any remotely usable shape, whatever hasn't been trashed by assholes was in such a rickety state I dare not set foot on/in it anyway, including a 800 meter wooden bridge running high over the park.

Outside. There was a Dutch truck as well, cleaning services. There's new fences and signs up, warning people not to trespass and that the area is under security, but we didn't see anyone but bunches of photographers, some lady models and some of the local obnoxious youth. There have been some would-be investors in the past, but all have backed off, partially due to zoning issues which prevented them from redeveloping the park as a proper theme park.

I saw another, earlier photo by someone else of this truck, only it was in much better condition then. I can't tell if it's been smashed up by vandals or if a tree fell on it or something. There were several dead trees in the area and some of the houses and such had collapsed as well. Not sure how it ended up here after? 

Don't drink and drive.

A really tall slide, people coast down these on pieces of cloth usually I think, like on burlap sacks. That's how I remember it from another theme park anyway. It was raining on and off all day, mostly on. So everything was slippery. Everything. I wondered if you could still slide down this thing, probably. Your ass would probably leave one long clean streak all the way down the lane though.

Park of a haunted house that was falling apart. I didn't go up because like I said before, rickety and slippery. I don't wanna fall somewhere, break my neck and upstage "I can't use a turnstile gate"-boy.

It used to be darker, but people broke through the walls. It was leaky as hell, big drops gathering on the ceiling before falling in your neck, face, on your camera. Felt wetter inside than it was out in the pouring rain.

One of the many, MANY abandoned playground gear. We spent half a day here and didn't see everything, also because a lot of it was completely overgrown and hidden from sight.