hello everyone we are paul and rebecca now 2020 was tough for a lot of people including our little
channel um but we still managed to get out there we did indeed um so we have put together a list of
our top 10 favorite explores from 2020 including older band of railways old tunnels up canals you
name it anything of interest now what we'd like you to do for 2021 is drop in below anywhere you
think that we should go including places that you might have access to or um just places you love
absolutely we really do want to know those so put them in the description below um and the last of
all but not least before we start i will put all the the links to the videos in the description
below so if you like any of these explores and you want to know a bit more about it then
obviously click on those links in the doobly-doo below so without further ado on with the top
10.
wow so first up is the blorenge mountain um up in south wales
so the one where i got the photograph where you were yeah your legs hanging out so the
thumb there was a legs hanging out the window the blorenge is a beautiful mountain in south wales
and it holds an old tramway so for those of you don't know what old tramway is
it's one of the original railways where they used to have um either wooden or metal uh plates on the
uh stones just to hold the rails in a very primitive form of a railway
and it had four tunnels on that mountain tunnels on a mountain
and they all still exist today we explored the area last january and also the january before
but it's a beautiful beautiful landscape and it was a a 200 year old railway 220 year old railway
uh on built by i think thomas hill and his garnet if his falls and all the iron works up there
very beautiful place would urge you to go and see it and explore some of those
four tunnels or at least three of the tunnels you can actually get inside
in at number nine is the calendar to open line with the glenn ogle viaduct so yeah obviously this
line had the glen ogle viaduct it also had killin junction which is an amazing old station and the
killin god so we snuck in about three different spots in the number nine slot here sneaky
sneaky indeed so the calendar i'd open line uh did exactly what it said on the tin after a number of
years up through the beautiful valley and of course all the challenges that the valley held
for the contractors and the railway builders of the time
very very beautiful line very famous and of course the glenova viaduct as rebecca said
it was our highlight from that trip so number nine uh glenn ogilvardo and the calendar open railway
in at number eight is the chard branch line and in particular donyatt halt well that's where across
the top wasn't there there was all the anti-tank yes wasn't there yeah it was called the stop
line for that reason yeah and so they had all the blocks along the line to stop sort of enemy tanks
coming in during world war two so donyatt holt the reason why we put that in this is this uh this top
ten is because we love projects where a local community have got together and done something
to restore an old abandoned station this is what we always love people community have come together
and done this and of course this had information boards the whole platform
and the whole was done up lovely wasn't it you can stop those benches you name it it
was lovely really beautiful little place and that's why Donyatt Halt is in our number eight
so number seven is the somerset coal canal now the Somerset coal crown we've only explored one branch
here because i think there's two and it's a very beautiful place to go you can walk on a lot of it
you can see all the old lock see the the flight of locks that go up and around the Combe hay
um and we the reason it's in our number seven is because there's still a few mysteries that
have yet to be sold by so when they were building um that part where the locks are
now they're an inclined plane and they also had what was going to be um locks that went
down into the ground and under underwater sort of encased cassions now can you imagine getting
your barge and going into a box both ends being completely sealed either end and then
you're lowered down a shaft on in your boat in your box and then you go through a tunnel
and potentially you go into another castle which is lockable and then you go down again
and people aren't 100 sure how much of that was actually made so we'll have a good mystery we'd
have a good unexcellent unexplained mystery that's why sunset coal canal is in our number seven
number six is the beautiful lead hills to wanlockhead disused branch line oh this was one
of our first little trips or first little videos when we went up to scotland last time around
and it was quite amazing it is the one lockhead is the highest station in scotland highest
village in scotland the first business school and of course the highest abandoned railway
so it was a beautiful trip it was a beautiful lovely august day and we mostly had some wonderful
drone shots some viaducts um that were there but now abandoned and of course up into the hills
and at the final stop of wanockhead and we did a bit of exploring a very beautiful place
again would urge you to go up to that valley and go and see it
in at five is the doe park tunnels which we actually did um on the alpine route on
our way up to scotland yeah so the alpine route is is sort of the nickname for it
the the queensbury lines and yeah we did that we we met um darren from adventure me
go and subscribe to darren's channel because it's great darren gave us a quite an interesting tour
of that stretch from queensberry north um and there was a whole bunch of different tunnels
and cuttings very beautiful in particular the reason why it's in number five on our list today
is because of the dough part tunnels fascinating never didn't like it before
basically they are called inverted tunnels which are almost completely encased like a round
not a round circle but they are in case they've got a tunnel on the bottom and the top and now
you'd think all they needed was a cutting but apparently they built these inverted tunnels to
stop uh water ingress because it was extremely wet part of the um the landscape and yeah quite unique
i haven't seen anything like it since or prior to that so in the number five is the doe park tunnels
in number four is the bath two tunnels which almost killed me as we did it by
bike on the way there was fine to bath but all the way back new especially after panini
um back in the early part of the summer sort of late um late spring we were invited by mark
and frank now mark and frank are responsible in in large part to the the orchestration of
setting up the two tunnels cycle route um which go underneath a suburb of bath mark discussed it
one day in the pub and thought yeah it'd be a much better idea if it was done like this
and so yeah they pushed through and they did it yeah and a remarkable achievement
over a mile long tunnel one of them and it when we went there it was packed people going up and down
using it for all sorts of recreational purposes which is fantastic um so yeah
number four a well-deserved mark and frank and their wonderful two tunnels project in bath
in at number three is whitby we managed at the end of the summer to nip up there sort of mid between
everything that was going on this year um and we went to samson then kettle nest tunnel we did
uh san san diego has fascinating tunnels um the way in which they were built they had added that
went out the side to see so they could remove some of the spoil out that way they still exist today
we went into kesonus from the north and we managed to get in and see one of these addicts
and get some lovely pictures and bits and pieces i did yeah you said outside um and we have a friend
called matt who was also up at a similar time and he went into or certainly got to the portal
northern end of sandstone it looks very dangerous the the the southern end is
completely blocked up yeah the northern end is sort of eroding very quickly so yeah
we would like to sort of get in again if we can another day but i would need we i need someone
else with me at the time because i think it's a guide well i've also someone to actually be a
buddy if you will because i think that would be a sensible thing based on the potential
dangers of that tunnel itself anyway so yeah in at number three is the sand sand and kettle nice
in tunnels two is the dorset and somerset canal and in particular two things on that canal the
murtry bridge and the hucky duck so the hucky duck and murtry bridge and the tunnel went underneath
it were actually aqueducts so we were lucky enough to get in contact with the owners of the hockey
duck aqueduct when their garden had a tour of the massive structure that still exists today
so that was a hockey duck and of course towards the end of that trip we got to see the
mercury aqueduct what's called the mercury bridge but it is an aqueduct or was an aqueduct and
surprisingly there was a passenger or a little walkway built underneath the aqueduct which is
as beautifully intact as you can imagine so it was built in 1794 and it is as good as new in terms of
the masonry and the quality of the build and when we went underneath it we found some old symbols
they haven't watched the videos they have watched the video watch the video secrets
obviously all the links to these in the doobly-doo below but the symbols obviously we assume are
maybe masonry symbols from the people that actually built the bridge and cut the stone
and therefore if they had their their symbol on it they'd get paid for the stone that they
um they built but that was a really really for me that was one of my favorites hence
why i said number two um so yeah number two the dorset somerset canal it was never really used
and of course the hucky duck aqueduct and the murtry bridge
In at Number one. Sapperton canal tunnel obviously the links in the
in the doobly-doo below there's two videos on it because we did the thames and seven canal
and then we did Sapperton canal tunnel as its own video and it didn't i've really enjoyed the edit
we kind of tried to pay tribute to the people that built it the 26 shafts that were built for
it to help speed up the construction and of course it's scary as you like in the woods above it now
there are still some big holes there you can see down the shaft so we decided to we did with the
help of our engineer friend gary we built um a rover i think we built it gary built a rover is
ready rebecca's going to make a point that we are no point going anywhere near the edge ourselves
we stuck a gopro on and we stuck it down the shaft to see what was at the bottom
you know that was such an enjoyable saw a couple of days filming those videos really really good so
that is why sapperton canal tunnel is in at number one and uh yeah you can see all about that in the
video we're not gonna repeat all the stats and how long it was etcetera because it's all in the
video itself so go and watch those videos if you want so that concludes our top 10 abandoned places
that we've explored in 2020 and what we'd like you to do is don't forget to put in the comments below
where you would like us to go in 2021 absolutely so hopefully with better times on the horizon
and light at the end of the proverbial tunnel we want to hear your ideas on where we should
explore in 2021 so please put a comment in the description below and we will do
our best to reply to the comment um so yeah that concludes the video today with thanks
for watching thanks for your support in 2020 and yeah we shall see you in the next
video
really you're having fun rebecca i'm having lots of fun in the cold it's so cold