We'd walked this section before, so Will came with me to stretch his legs after the Christmas excesses. He had loved the story about the quarry alarm and I had to convince him it wasn't a good idea to do it again. We picked up from where we'd left off, though this time we came from the direction we knew. We passed under our start point via a small 65 metre tunnel. The sleepers and rails ran for the full length of today's section. This path must be much less utilized than then stretch up to Tintern as it was a little overgrown in places. It passes very close to the quarry building. This stretch is below the subsided road and a lot of rock has tumbled onto the track. There's a buffer here and a couple of old stone ruins. The track runs very close to a very steep drop in places so care is needed. We also found a small cave which we hadn't noticed before.

It's a brilliant tunnel. Not barricaded at either end. It's probably the longest tunnel I've been down as it clocks in at almost 0.75 miles. It's only unusual feature is that there is a shaft to the surface in the middle of the tunnel. You can turn your torch off here and see OK. The Petzel MYO5 torch got a good workout. It's incredibly bright on the xenon beam, but the led mode is great for walking as it lights the ground around you and lasts for up to 70 hours in this mode. I tried on Christmas day walking over the fields in the evening. Never again will I be constrained to walking in daylight hours only.
Will really enjoyed then tunnel, he thought it was a great adventure. At the south easterly portal we scrambled up the bank. The track is very overgrown here, so I'm not relishing the thought of this short section. There's a bridge just a few yards from the tunnel portal which seems odd. We walked back via the Gloucestershire Way. There's just one field where the owners have done their best to conceal the public right of way. How annoying is that?