right welcome to wales i don't know if we i didn't realize we're in wales
that's sign said welcome to wales okay maybe we're not now because we're going we're going
right now that's a good point we're getting another sign saying welcome back to england
for five minutes
well this is really exciting today we are heading towards chepstow
for reasons which we're very excited about
when you're on a bike you can't always see people coming towards you you've got to be concentrated
monmouth which is in well so we are in wales so we've not come back out
today's adventure starts here it starts in that bike hire place because although we
brought our own bikes stupidly we didn't bring our own helmet so this is already
wow look ahead of us just down there that is beautiful that looks amazing so welcome to
the wye valley greenway which was opened just back in april this year they did all
on the quiet because of covid they didn't want huge crowds
and yeah we'll tell you the story as we head north towards tinton but um for the meantime on the bike
here we are Rebecca the wye valley greenway
Rebecca's here too everyone really the wye valley railway you can work out what it's
called the wye valley railway so it connected uh Monmouth all the way down the wye valley weaving
through the landscape all the way as the the river meandered itself and had a few
intermediate stations never that busy never that profitable had grand divisions as you can imagine
oh yeah someone's on someone's on an electric bike today um someone else isn't on an electric bike
so one of the biggest issues if you read the early newspaper reports of this tunnel
is how potentially dangerous it is now that's not a necessary general view there's a lot of
reports and complaints people saying how dark it is obviously that's for the bats but people are
saying you've got to be very careful because bikes come out of nowhere and such a rebecca
a couple of minutes ahead is the thousand yard tunnel we should tell you more about it either
all the way through or when we get out the other side cause it's gonna be very dark
all right we've come away from cheshire to go into this really
you're winding me up right you're not going you're
i've done it seven times since the first of april yep i've done it on my bike five times i did
have the light on once because i was a little bit frightened with my body i shouldn't do it because
of the bats oh i brought the grandchildren through and i think it's amazing and there's your friends
yeah we talked to them very now and again yeah we've come from southampton yeah okay all right
yeah yeah and it can get really busy like this is quiet today come really busy the only thing when
you're in there when you're on a bike you can't always see them coming towards you you've got to
be concentrated we've read a lot of those reports from people complaining online yeah but then but
then i took my grandchild child through with her and she was frightened initially going that way
because the lights are on the other side but on the way back she was all up for it what's going on
a little kid's gonna step in in the dark and you can't see them yeah you get run over another thing
where i didn't a month ago you could see the river river wide down below yep now i've come last week
where it's all grown you can't see the river white much you can see it you know with the leaves so
i'm very excited
right so some of the concerns raised people we just saw quite interesting
it's very dark i'd say this is darker than bath two tunnels
but there we go that's what they needed to do in order to get the bat license in order to
open this tunnel so we shall abide by their rules and we'll meet you at the other end
bye
my
how was that for you how was that for you better it was okay it
i was supposed to was darker i expected it from the report so i expected to be darker too
what was a bit disconcerting was it because it was dark the ceiling felt like it was really
low because all the lights obviously were facing downwards and the ceiling kept looking up feeling
like i needed to duck because the darkness felt like it was the ceiling it's very weird
but there's so much in there so much to see if you if you're walking you've got a bit of time there's
all the parts but there's so many sort of recesses but that's obviously how they built the wall
against the rock face but then there's a lot of it where it's complete brick so where they didn't
trust the um the limestone but it's built under 700 feet of limestone mountain as it were isn't it
we're gonna head on now down to tin turn to the next tunnel uh which i don't think is
open i'd rather then plan to open it one day that'd be quite good but tintin tunnel next
you can see by the crazy people we've just met back there what lovely people and this
is what we like to do when we come out our little adventures you know and this is what
this this does this is what the the project that these people undertook in making this
a cycle route in a greenway a shared walk-in and cycle route is it brings people together
so they started building this line of the tunnel in 1874 and it took him two
years or 18 months to two years to build it which is very quick for a 1 000 yard tunnel
so i want to rules of thumb that we applied to is if we're going across a abandoned railway
and you see a massive embankment that you're going across somewhere along the line there's
probably a culvert underneath it or bridge to let the water through so i just thought you know we
just crossed this huge embankment here let's have a look down the valley and see if we can see any
way that they got the water underneath it so yeah right ahead of us
the perseverance of doing this is paid off looks like a really cool tunnel down there
wow so um in all the colders that i've seen all the culprits i expected to see
i wasn't expecting to see something quite like this it's huge it's really huge i mean it's
three and a half four meters wide it's probably
um i don't know four meters high it's bricklined all the way across the top
and it's masonry all the way along the side and what's better is if you look at the flooring
it's masonry floored as well so in 1876 the line opened to a a train coming up from chepstow on the
12 30 up to monmouth and it passed through all the stations that were open by then
and of course thereafter i think a couple more halts opened up including the one at the beginning
of the tunnel the other side of the tin tinted little den hill tunnel netherhope hulk which is
right by the entrance to the tunnel and there is a lady still alive today who lives up above it and
she remembers as a kid getting on the train she remembers her mum seeing the steam engine come in
the distance and shouting to her to get downstairs and get ready for the train and apparently the
train just waited for her she was late because they obviously knew who got on and off regularly
so we made it to tintin tension tunnel should we say first of all now the sound about 300 yards
long very tight radius and then comes out on the the cliff edge goes over what was a free span
iron viaduct and came round into tinton station what a beautiful railway that must have been very
beautiful come all the way down the rai valley and into tinten which i think there was like a few old
coaches because we did go there a couple of years ago didn't we rebecca i'd love to say it wouldn't
take much to open that tunnel but i guess that would be what would be the point because you can
get down to tintin on the pathway just there if you're going to open that tunnel you then have to
you know open the the varda the other side to get to tintin station so what that was on the
cards on i don't know i guess it wouldn't be but um should we get a coffee yes okay
then i have done how well that come out on the camera but yeah another reason why this
route along here is just something else look at that beautiful isn't it
apparently when the tunnel's closed you can actually still do this little check bit it
takes 30 to 40 extra minutes because there are significant climbs i wouldn't want to do that with
my bike so this has been the the y valley greenway and it's beautiful we've had the tunnel we've had
the beautiful pathway all the way down that valley there big testament to the volunteers that camped
here that virtually lived here and made this camp they called it work camp today yeah and and
made it into what it is today which is wonderful because people like us can come along and just go
yeah this is great fun but you know really when you think about the hard work involved with the
volunteers and of course you know they built the tunnels and the cuttings all the way all those
years ago back in the 1870s wonderful we'll leave you in peace and we shall see you next week thanks
for watching everybody do all the good things that you normally do like press the subscribe
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