B2B Day 16 Peasedown St John to Bath--A Mile-Long Tunnel!

For an OS map of today's walk (10 mi; 16.1 km; 965 ft total ascent) click here.

We had a breakfast of cereal, toast, and scrambled eggs, folded our fresh laundry, and set off for Bath. We walked uphill (very uphill) into the village of Peasedown St John, and we thought we saw a baker walking down the hill, having just ended her morning shift at the bakery we were headed for. We bought a ham salad filled roll, and set off on a series of field paths, coming to Dunkerton church. 

Dunkerton church

Unfortunately, there was a man working inside the church, and we felt that he didn’t want to be disturbed, so we had a quick look and went outside. We had just sat down on a bench in the churchyard when two women arrived and said, “Great minds think alike!” We offered to give the bench to them, but they were happy to sit on the wall nearby. Our first path after leaving the church was alright, but then we had a long path around a huge field of grain. It seemed to take forever to skirt. 

The endless grain field with the not so great "path"

The footpath was almost non-existent, alternating between kind of a path beside the field to a path right at the edge of the field. The only ones who enjoyed it were the dragonflies, which seemed different from the usual ones we see—an electric blue body with large black wings, making them look more like moths than dragonflies (and perhaps they weren’t dragonflies at all). Many of them rose up off the tall grasses as we waded through. [Note: An information board we read the next day indicated that we might have been seeing damselflies]. We had an okay field path in the next field, then another large grain field with a poor path, then a short uphill climb up to the village of Combe Hay.
 

Sara was excited to see a 1960s Volvo PV parked on the street, the same type of car she grew up with. It was in beautiful condition. 

The Unexpected Volvo

In the village, we stopped briefly at the lovely Wheatsheaf Pub for some lemonade and crisps.

We were on a railway path right away after that. When the path took a turn, we sat on a slope of grass and ate our sandwich, crisps, bananas, and biscuits. The path was then a former canal towpath. 

The dried up canal to the left of Ken

Ken under a massive tunnel (note the tree on the right with one branch on either side of the tunnel)

We emerged from the path onto the road, and directly across the road was the Hope and Anchor pub. We didn’t resist having a drink (Ken) and a blackcurrant and clotted cream ice cream (Sara). 

At the Hope and Anchor

We then resumed walking on a railway path, and were thinking of walking through the tunnel. When we were close to the tunnel, we asked a couple of adults who were shepherding a school group what the tunnel was like. The woman said it was lovely, and easier than other ways to get into Bath. She said there was music, and that the tunnel was about a mile long. We decided to do it. 

At the entrance to the tunnel

It was a highlight of the day’s walk. There were lights all through the tunnel, though it still felt quite dark. It was also cool, and full of fresh air. When we were partway through, we could see our breath in the air because it was so cold in there. In the middle section, there was indeed music—different stringed instruments such as violin and cello, playing through rings in different glowing colours. We loved it.

 

Ken heading for the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel

We made it to the end of the tunnel

When we emerged from the tunnel, we didn’t immediately see the path we wanted to use to get off of the railway path, so we just kept going. Just before another tunnel, we asked two women about how to get off the path, and a male cyclist came along and also offered his advice. We had to go through this second tunnel (much shorter) and Ken of course found the way into Bath from there. We checked into our Travelodge and had a bit of time left before heading to Bath Abbey for Evensong. The Abbey has a major renovation project going on. We found it a bit incongruous waiting for the service to begin and seeing a man up a ladder with a Henry vacuum cleaner that was also perched on the ladder. He was vacuuming some of the woodwork in the east end, but did stop shortly before the service began. The service was lovely, with the choir singing joyously, and the prayers were meaningful and beautiful.

Bath Abbey

We then went to the Indian takeaway we had previously visited in 2017, and took dinner “home” to our hotel room, where we relaxed for the rest of the evening.